Sainsbury’s to cut 3,000 jobs; increase fresh food ranges in more stores

Sainsbury’s has on Thursday announced plans to bring more of the retailer’s core food ranges to more supermarket customers, while simplifying central divisions and management structures.

The proposals are part of its three-year Next Level strategy, and will see an estimated 20 per cent reduction in senior management roles over the next few months, resulting in the overall reduction of over 3,000 roles from across the business.

As Sainsbury’s approaches the end of the first year of its Next Level strategy, the retailer said more customers are choosing the retailer for their big shop and the business is seeing strong momentum, with seven consecutive quarters of volume growth, its best-ever value position and record customer satisfaction scores at Christmas.

Sainsbury’s plans to create space to offer more of its fresh food ranges in more stores and this will involve proposals to close remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters while making their most popular items available in the aisles.

The retailer’s roll-out of updated bakery recipes to ensure consistent quality and value will be completed by the summer, along with new self-serve bread slicing.

Cafés axed

In a further move to simplify the business, the retailer has decided to close its remaining 61 Sainsbury’s Cafés, subject to consultation. Sainsbury’s said the majority of its shoppers do not use the cafés regularly and cafés and food halls run by specialist partners are becoming more and more popular.

The business has also announced updates to its central management structures to support faster decision making and drive performance at both Sainsbury's and Argos. Rhian Bartlett will become chief commercial officer, Sainsbury’s and Graham Biggart will be MD Argos and chief strategy and supply officer. Patrick Dunne, director of property and procurement will also join the Operating Board as chief property and procurement officer and MD for SmartCharge.

As part of Sainsbury’s Save and invest to win programme to deliver £1 billion of operating cost savings, the retailer plans to update its central divisions and management structures. This will see all head office departments reorganised to become dedicated to the different needs of the Sainsbury’s and Argos businesses, while creating fewer, bigger roles with clearer accountabilities.

Sainsbury’s said the changes are designed to drive faster decision making and bring costs down through an estimated 20 per cent reduction in senior management roles over the next few months. The proposals it has shared with colleagues are expected to result in the overall reduction of over 3,000 roles from across the business.

Sainsbury's said it is in discussions with the colleagues affected about what the changes mean for them and explore redeployment opportunities where this is possible.

“We launched our Next Level Strategy almost a year ago and are totally focused on making good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day. As a result, we’re seeing real momentum across our business, with a best-ever value position, leading quality and increasing market share. As we accelerate into year two and beyond of our strategy, we are facing into a particularly challenging cost environment which means 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,” Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said.

“The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum but have also meant some difficult choices impacting our dedicated colleagues in a number of parts of our business. We’ll be doing everything we can to support anyone impacted by today’s announcements.”