Manchester base to be hit by Sainsbury’s cuts

STAFF at a Manchester store support centre are set to impacted in a cost savings drive by supermarket group Sainsbury’s.

The cuts, announced on Tuesday, came as data showed Sainbury’s has leapfrogged Asda to become Britain’s second-largest food retailer for the first time in 11 years.

The redundancies will be at Sainsbury’s headquarters in London and at store support centres in Manchester and Coventry.  Staffing in shops will not be impacted. The cut represents about 13% of staff in the roles affected, the supermarket chain said.

But the reduction in staff could affect more people as the supermarket abolishes some jobs and moves workers to other roles.

In November, Sainsbury’s said it planned to make £500m of savings in the next three years. There will be a 12-week consultation process to decide precisely which jobs will go.

“We want to work through this period of uncertainty as quickly as possible, while making sure we consult with colleagues who are affected by these changes,” chief executive Mike Coupe said in a letter to staff.

“We’re committed to treating all impacted colleagues with respect, during what we know will be a difficult time.”

Sainsbury’s received a boost from figures released by Kantar Worldpanel, which suggested that a strong Christmas had pushed the chain up from third to second in the grocery league table for the first time since September 2003.

Although Sainsbury’s sales for the three months to January were down by 0.7%  to £4.62bn year-on-year, Asda’s takings dropped farther, slipping by 1.6% to £4.59bn. It meant that Sainsbury’s had 16.9% of grocery takings, against Asda’s 16.8%.

Kantar’s figures suggested that till receipts for the supermarket industry rose by 0.6% to £27.4bn in the final quarter.