Up to 10% of Asda’s head office staff face redundancy
ASDA has started to consult with its head office staff about a reorganisation that is expected to result in “hundreds” of redundancies.
The supermarket chain has suffered from declining sales in five consecutive quarters, and analysis by Kantar suggested it was the worst performer of the Big 4 supermarkets over Christmas.
About 3,000 people work at its Leeds headquarters and it is understood that between 200-300 jobs will be cut in the restructuring.
In a statement Asda said: “Today, we have started to talk to our colleagues in head office functions about what this means for them.
“We have made some difficult but necessary decisions but we must discuss these with our colleagues before we talk publicly.”
Last week Asda announced it is to invest £500m in price cuts as the intense competition between retailers shows no sign of easing up.
The Walmart-owned group is nearly halfway through its five-year commitment to invest £1bn over five years and this latest investment is in addition to that sum.
It added: “It’s well documented that in recent years, customers have radically changed the way they shop.
“We were the first of the ‘big four’ to recognise this and launch a new strategy in 2013 yet the external pressures have accelerated at an increasingly rapid rate over the last 18 months.
“As a result, the industry faces major challenges and the certainty of permanent structural change. In the context of this, we also have to further change the way we do business.”
