Asda nears end of restructure which has seen hundreds of people leave

SUPERMARKET giant Asda has confirmed the extent of the job losses following the restructuring that formed part of its response to falling sales throughout 2015.

Project Renewal, an 18-month project launched in the autumn, is looking at ways to reshape some of the supermarket’s processes and offerings.

In-store services like photo processing and pizza making have been reviewed, which have led to 280 voluntary redundancies across the business. In addition, around 200 people based at its Asda House headquarters in Leeds left in January shortly after the supermarket group began its staff consultation.

An Asda spokesperson said: “We are nearing the end of a 45 day consultation on proposals which we believe will enable us to react more quickly by becoming a leaner and more agile business. 

“Our focus throughout this process has been on making sure that our stores and services are fit for the future and our colleagues have been an integral part of the decision making process. Of the 5000 colleagues who entered into consultation, 280 have now taken the decision to leave the business. While we are always saddened to see colleagues move on, we believe this dramatically reduced figure demonstrates Asda’s commitment to conducting a thorough and meaningful consultation process.

“We are confident these changes will be effective in making our stores easier to shop in and better positioned to delivering the low prices, quality and good value customers tell us they want.”

Changes have also been made among the senior management team. Andy Murray has moved from Walmart and replaced Barry Williams as chief customer officer while Roger Burnley will start as chief operating officer in October once he is free from his restrictions since leaving Sainsbury’s.

Asda’s chief executive Andy Clarke had predicted 2015 would be a tough year for the sector, and so it proved, with the supermarket group on a run of six consecutive quarters of declining sales. Its non-fuel sales were down by £970m in 2015, to £19.7bn.

Asda has been more focused on maintaining profits rather than sales and has the benefit of being privately owned by the American retail giant. Although it has yet to disclose its 2015 profit figure, Walmart has said its UK business has seen an increase in its gross profit.