Sainsbury’s to cut 3,000 jobs as it shuts hot food counters and cafes
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Supermarket chain to cut head office roles by a fifth amid rising labour costs. Sainsbury’s is to cut 3,000 jobs in the UK through the closure of its hot food counters and cafes and by reducing senior management roles by a fifth, amid rising labour costs.
Simon Roberts, the chief executive of the supermarket group, said he was making the job cuts as part of its already announced efforts to slash £1bn from costs as the business was “facing into a particularly challenging cost environment”. “We have had to make tough choices about where we can afford to invest and where we need to do things differently to make our business more efficient and effective,” he added. “The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum.”.
The job losses come after Britain’s largest retailers warned they could be forced to cut thousands of jobs and raise prices this year as the industry braces for measures in Labour’s budget to increase employer national insurance contributions by £25bn from April and a 6.7% rise in the national minimum wage.
Most big supermarkets traded well over Christmas, however. Sainsbury’s, which also owns Argos and Habitat, announced earlier this month that it enjoyed its “biggest ever Christmas” with sales up by 3.8% in the six weeks to 4 January, while sales at its Argos stores rose 1.1% in that period.
