Nearly 200 jobs in doubt as Sainsbury’s announces closure of prominent West Midlands store

SAINSBURY’S has announced it is to close its supermarket at the Merry Hill Centre, placing almost 200 jobs at risk.

The closure, which will be complete by the end of the year, marks the second high profile retailer to exit the shopping centre in the space of a month following the closure of the two-level BHS store.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “Like all retailers, we keep our estate under review to ensure our business is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible and to ensure we provide customers with the best possible service.

“On this occasion, we have announced plans to close our Merry Hill supermarket. We’re now conducting a consultation process with all affected colleagues who we will support through the difficult period ahead.”

The centre is not over-served by grocery outlets, although it does accommodate a large Asda supermarket, while there is also a food department within the main Marks & Spencer store.

The store employs 190 people and the retailer has said it will try and find them jobs at some of its other supermarkets nearby.

The announcement comes just a day after the company revealed it had seen a 1.1% fall in like-for-like sales during the second quarter.

In his statement to accompany the trading update, group chief executive Mike Coupe said: “We continue to make progress against our strategy and, while like-for-like sales were down 1.1%, we delivered like-for-like transaction growth across all channels and total volume growth. This shows that customers are consistently choosing Sainsbury’s for the choice, quality, value and customer service we offer.  

“Our ambition is to help customers live well for less. We have made further investment in everyday low prices and continue to improve the quality of our products. Our general merchandise and clothing offer is popular with customers and the acquisition of Home Retail Group will accelerate our multi-product, multi-channel strategy.

“We will open 200 new digital collection points by the end of the year and already have 15 Argos Digital stores open in Sainsbury’s stores so customers can shop 90,000 products whenever and wherever they want.”