Sainsbury’s to shed 800 store jobs in bid to save £500m in supermarket price war

Sainsbury’s is set to axe 800 jobs in stores as part of a shake-up aimed at saving £500m over the next three years to better position itself in the ongoing supermarket price war. 

 

The supermarket chain said yesterday that it plans to remove department and deputy managers from certain stores in order to invest in other shop floor roles that will help boost customer service. 

 

It also plans to change the way it re-stocks its stores by replacing night shift roles with early morning and evening shifts in some stores to improve product availability. 

 

“The formal consultation starts today and, where possible, we hope colleagues will opt to move to other roles or stores,” Roger Burnley, retail and operations director said. 

 

 “We expect the new structures to be in place later this year and as a result, we will be set up to work more effectively together to better serve our customers,” he said. 

 

Chief executive Mike Coupe unveiled plans in November to cut costs as well as its dividend to fund a £150m price offensive against the discounters and its big three supermarket rivals. 

 

In January it cut 500 jobs at its at its support centres in London, Manchester and Coventry. In total the group employs about 161,000 people.

 

Tesco, Asda and Morrisons have all cut jobs over the last year. Last month Sainsbury’s posted a fifth consecutive quarter of declining underlying sales but insisted measures laid out in November’s strategy update were on track and beginning to take effect.