Tesco ends 24-hour opening at a further 20 stores amid operational changes

The grocer said the 20 stores scrapping round-the-clock trading, including Extra stores in Birmingham, Manchester and Sunderland, will close from midnight until 6am “in most cases”.

Changes to opening hours in those locations are among a host of changes being made across 48 stores in Tesco’s portfolio.

The supermarket giant is ending night shifts at 46 of its larger stores, moving from night-time replenishment to an evening or “twilight” model.

Additionally, Tesco is bringing together areas such as customer service points, click-and-collect sales and tobacco and lottery kiosks into one all-encompassing desk across a number of the 48 shops, allowing shoppers to “get everything they need in one place”.

It also plans to “simplify” its general merchandise operations, which could involve the removal of separate click-and-collect desks or checkouts in some locations.

The retailer said the changes, which will be implemented from mid-August, will affect about 2,000 shop-floor staff, but insisted the roles of 250 of those would not be changing.

Tesco informed employees of the changes yesterday afternoon and has entered into a 45-day consultation period with the remaining 1,750 workers.

The grocer aims to redeploy as many of those employees as possible, either within the same stores or into nearby shops that continue to trade overnight.

It is understood that staff redundancies will only be considered as a “last resort”.

The changes come less than five months after Tesco unveiled plans to axe 24-hour opening at 76 of its larger stores, which it said at the time would “improve the shopping experience for customers”.

Tesco UK chief operating officer Tony Hoggett said: “We’re making some changes to the way a small number of our stores operate to help us run them more simply and deliver the best possible service to customers.

“Where there have been changes to a colleague’s role we will work with them to ensure they are fully supported.”