Sainsbury’s to axe thousands of jobs as it closes counters and streamlines head office

Chief executive Simon Roberts said it was cutting 3,000 jobs from the business as part of already announced efforts to slash £1bn in costs as the grocer is “facing into a particularly challenging cost environment”.

“We have had to make tough choices about where we can afford to invest,” he said. “And where we need to do things differently to make our business more efficient and effective.

“The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum.”

Sainsbury’s will close remaining food counters, patisseries and hot pizza stations, shifting the most popular items from those areas into regular shopping aisles and offering “self-serve bread slicing”.

It will also close its remaining 61 Sainsbury’s branded cafes, replacing them with third-party chains and food halls.

Sainsbury’s is reorganising departments at its head office to create “fewer, bigger roles with clearer accountabilities”. It also said the “streamlining” would “drive faster decision making and bring costs down” by reducing senior management roles by a fifth over the next few months.

The business has blamed the measures on the government’s Budget, which increased employers’ national insurance contributions and raised the minimum wage.

The move comes after Sainsbury’s trumpeted its “biggest ever Christmas” with sales up 3.8% in the six weeks to January 4, while sales at its general merchandise business Argos rose 1.1%.

The retailer, which is headquartered in London, said it would look to redeploy workers where possible and support those affected.