Exclusive: Sainsbury’s axes 300 roles as it steps up ‘save to invest’ programme

No comments

Sainsbury’s is axing hundreds of jobs across three store support centres as it ramps up its cost-cutting drive, Retail Week has learned.

The supermarket giant is outsourcing roles across food commercial, finance operations and people services and HR to professional services firm Accenture.

Around 300 employees based at Sainsbury’s central offices in Manchester, Holborn and Ansty are understood to be impacted by the changes. Sainsbury’s informed affected staff of the proposals on Thursday, a source told Retail Week, and has launched a consultation.

As part of the changes, the grocer has also created the Sainsbury’s Business Services team, led by chief transformation officer Graham Biggart, which will explore fresh ways to drive efficiencies and new ways of working across the retailer.

The job cuts are the latest step in Sainsbury’s ‘save to invest’ programme – a key pillar of boss Simon Roberts’ strategy to “put food back at the heart” of the grocer. Sainsbury’s is investing the cost savings in lower prices and product innovation in a bid to keep customers out of the clutches of grocery rivals, including discount duo Aldi and Lidl.

In November 2020, the same month that Roberts unveiled his strategic update to the City, Sainsbury’s revealed plans to permanently close its in-store meat, fish and deli counters due to “reduced consumer demand”.

Last March, Sainsbury’s shed 500 central roles after reducing its office space in Manchester, Holborn, Milton Keynes and Ansty. Its office in Coventry and its Origin site in London also closed.

Earlier this year, Sainsbury’s said it would axe 200 cafes, 34 hot food counters and 54 bakeries in a move that put a further 2,000 jobs at risk.

At its half-year results last November, Sainsbury’s reported a 19.7% uplift in retail underlying operating profit to £523m, when compared to pre-pandemic levels. It attributed the bottom-line improvement to sales gains and a 42bps increase in operating margin, following what it called the “early success” of the ‘save to invest’ plan.

A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “We are focused on our plans to put food back at the heart of Sainsbury’s. To achieve this, we are becoming a more simple, nimble and efficient business so that we can reinvest in what matters most to customers – low prices, exciting new products and convenient ways to shop.

“We are talking to a small proportion of our store support centre colleagues about some changes we are proposing to the way we work.

“Colleagues affected will enter into a consultation process and we are supporting them through this in any way we can. This includes exploring alternative roles within Sainsbury’s, as well as providing independent support with job opportunities elsewhere as part of a redundancy package which far exceeds statutory requirements.”