Tesco to shed 500 staff in distribution centre shake-up

The grocery giant said 1,000 redundancies will be made, but that 500 new roles will be created at other sites across the Tesco distribution network.

This includes new jobs at its Reading and Middlesbrough distribution centres as well as the creation of colleague support roles in the majority of centres.

As part of the shake-up, the Tesco will close its distribution centre in Welham Green, moving its grocery operations to Reading.

It will also consolidate its general merchandising division into its Middlesbrough distribution centre, resulting in the closure of its Chesterfield unit.

Tesco will withdraw from its shared centre in Daventry, which is currently operated by DHL, and bring all of its third-party warehouse operations in-house.

The grocer, which has been revived under boss Dave Lewis, insisted the “simplification” would ensure the business is “set up for the future in a rapidly changing retail sector”.

Tesco UK and Ireland chief executive Matt Davies said: “As the needs of our customers change, it’s vital we transform our business for the future.

“As part of this we are proposing to close two of our distribution centres in the UK. These changes will help to simplify our distribution operations so we can continue to serve our customers better.

“Our priority throughout this process has been our colleagues and we will continue to do all we can to support them at this time.”

Tesco will report third-quarter trading figures on Thursday.