Lewis and Tesco plan to shed up to 20% of its 40,000 SKUs in a bid to fight back against the discounters Aldi and Lidl, which continue to increase UK market share, according to The Times.

Tesco chief product officer Andrew Yaxley told suppliers last week about the proposed cuts, which are likely to fall hardest across household products such as toilet roll. Tesco are also looking to cut costs by placing bigger orders with fewer suppliers, as well as prioritising and rebranding own-label ranges.

Since taking over the top job at the UK’s largest retailer in 2014, Lewis has more than halved the number of SKUs stocked by Tesco across its stores and tens of thousands of jobs have been axed.