Sainsbury’s has announced further plans to cut thousands of jobs from stores as a cost-cutting strategy.
The supermarket has not confirmed the number of management roles at risk but has said it will be “in the thousands”.
“We’re proposing a store management structure that will deliver best in class leadership and in many cases will offer an improved reward package for new management roles,” said Sainsbury’s retail and operations director, Simon Roberts.
“The proposals will introduce a more efficient and effective structure. They will deliver cost savings to be invested in our customer offer and in our colleagues as they continue to provide the very best service for our customers.”
“Our intention is not to reduce overall headcount as a result of these proposals. “I appreciate this will be a difficult time for those affected and we will fully support our people through these changes,” he added.
After a tough Christmas period for Argos, Sainsbury’s warned of a challenging market.
The news comes following Tesco’s announcement earlier this week, putting 1,700 management roles at risk and deferring to 900 new roles.
Like other the major UK supermarkets, Sainsbury’s is trying to cut costs and simplify its plans to save over £500 million over the next three years. By saving costs, supermarkets are hoping to compete with discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Asda also revealed last month that they are planning to enforce pay cuts or redundancy to more than 800 senior Asda shopfloor workers as part of a cost-cutting drive.
“They are shrinking as the discounters have fuelled a need to be more competitive on price, at a time when the volumes that the retailers are selling reduce,” said Philip Dorrell, managing partner at Retail Remedy.
Sainsbury’s already announced in October that it planned to cut 2,000 store and back-office roles as part of a shake-up.