Sainsbury’s to axe hundreds of management roles

The supermarket giant will axe management roles in its commercial, retail, finance, digital, technology and HR divisions as it continues to merge store support centre teams.

Customer-facing roles in stores will not be affected.

It comes four months after Sainsbury’s told investors and journalists at its capital markets day that it was seeking a further £500m of cost savings over the next five years.

Group finance boss Kevin O’Byrne said at the time that the business had 15 cost-saving programmes and revealed it was looking to consolidate the 12 data centres operated by Sainsbury’s and Argos. He also hinted that its technology functions would be brought together in the same way.

Those changes were confirmed today among a raft of other planned job cuts.

In a note to staff seen by Retail Week, Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said: “We have to adapt to continue to meet the needs of our customers now and in the future and, while change can be hard, it’s also necessary.

“We have a clear purpose and a strong and compelling set of priorities that will support us to deliver for our customers. We already have a sense of momentum across the business and can accelerate this by streamlining our structure and responding to customer needs more quickly.

“Truly integrating our business also unlocks efficiencies that we can reinvest in the things that matter most to our customers.”

Coupe insisted the changes would create a more streamlined management team that would allow the business to “deliver a joined-up customer experience” across the Sainsbury’s and Argos businesses.

Details of the move emerged less than two weeks after Asda kicked off a consultation with more than 2,800 staff in back-office roles.

The Walmart-owned grocer, which failed in its bid to merge with Sainsbury’s last year, is seeking to cut headcount across administrative, cash office and personnel roles in stores.