Wilko latest to axe store staff in week of job cuts

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Wilko followed hot on the heels of Sainsbury’s and Asda today as Retail Week revealed its plans to put 3,900 staff in redundancy consultation.

They say good things come in threes – but if this week is anything to go by, the opposite could be said for retail.

Wilko, which revealed plans to strip out a level of supervision roles across its 398-strong UK store estate today, is the third retailer this week to unveil staff cuts after Sainsbury’s and Asda.

The value retailer, which reported an 80% plunge in full-year profits last month, said the store staffing restructure addressed legacy issues across in its store management and replaced it with a “simpler” structure that would deliver “a better customer experience.”

The retailer is adding 1,000 new jobs across its stores to this end as it consolidates various supervisory roles into a team supervisor role, and will also add an unspecified number of customer service roles.

However, it’s hard to avoid the reality that this restructure will result in numerous redundancies and less staff on Wilko’s shopfloors as it grapples with increased competition from the likes of B&M, the weakened value of the sterling and the associated costs of the national living wage.

Also today, Sainsbury’s revealed a 30-minute click-and-collect pilot scheme and Amazon paid just £15m in tax across its European retail business.

Quote of the day

“The simpler newly defined store structure will give teams greater variety within their roles and result in more team hours on the shopfloor, delivering a better customer experience.”

– Wilko’s retail director Anthony Houghton