Supermarket confirms 9,000 roles to be axed in cost-cutting drive

Tesco

Tesco has confirmed that it is axe to up 9,000 roles as part as a massive cot-cutting drive.

The move will see fresh food counters closed and staff canteens shut. There are also cuts planned amongst middle management.

Reports emerged this weekend of a major cost-cutting exercise and some reports suggested as many as 15,000 jobs.

Tesco was forced to go public with its plans following the intense speculation over the last two days.

Staff affected by the cost-cutting were informed of the plans this morning.

UK Chief executive Jason Tarry said: “In our four years of turnaround we’ve made good progress, but the market is challenging and we need to continually adapt to remain competitive and respond to how customers want to shop.

“We are making changes to our UK stores and head office to simplify what we do and how we do it, so we’re better able to meet the needs of our customers.

“This will impact some of our colleagues and our commitment is to minimise this as much as possible and support our colleagues throughout.”

Tesco say that around 90 stores will close their counters, with the remaining 700 trading with either a full or flexible counter offer for our customers.

After a number of trials Tesco found a simpler way to conduct our store routines and will be rolling this out to all of its stores.

Canteens are going to close and be replaced by self-service kitchen areas in a number of stores.

Contrary to media reports over the weekend Tesco do not plan to make any significant changes to bakeries this year.

A statement said: “Overall, we estimate that up to 9,000 Tesco colleague roles could be impacted, however, our expectation is that up to half of these colleagues could be redeployed to other customer-facing roles.

“We are working with our third party providers to understand the impact on their staff in our colleague hot food service.

“Media speculation over the weekend was premature and we have accelerated our communications to colleagues in order to reduce the significant uncertainty created by incorrect information.

“We will be doing all we can to help colleagues affected by these changes, including offering redeployment opportunities wherever possible.”

Pauline Foulkes – Usdaw National Officer said: “Staff at Tesco are shocked and dismayed by the scale of yet another round of potential job losses, which clearly demonstrates the pressure retailers are under in the current very difficult and uncertain economic climate, as the cost cutting continues.

“With the British Retail Consortium estimating that there were 70,000 job losses across the retail sector last year, we need an industrial strategy lead by the Government, working with Usdaw and retailers to tackle the crisis on our high streets.

“This is devastating news for staff, who have played a crucial role in Tesco’s turnaround project, contributing to 12 successive quarters of growth, solid Christmas trading and over a billion pounds of profit.

“We will enter into consultation talks with Tesco, where we will examine the business case for their proposed changes.

“In the meantime, we are providing our members with the support, advice and representation they require at this difficult time.”

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