Tesco to slash 4,500 jobs in smaller stores
TESCO is preparing to cut 4,500 jobs – and has put part of the blame on customers’ shopping habits.
The news comes only eight months after the chain, Britain’s largest grocer, revealed that 9,000 jobs were at risk.
The majority of jobs will go from Tesco’s 153 Metro stores, with some positions going from its smaller Express sites and larger shops. It is also reducing opening hours at 134 of its 1,750 Express stores because fewer customers shop in them.
Tesco, which employs around 320,000 in the UK, and other traditional supermarkets are struggling to keep hold of customers as German discounters Aldi and Lidl attract shoppers looking to snap up a bargain.
Online firms such as Ocado, which is to launch a delivery service with Marks & Spencer, are also luring customers.
Tesco started the mediumsized Metro format in 1992. The stores, which are predominantly on high streets in towns and cities, were intended by Tesco to be used as conveniently located sites for customers doing their weekly grocery shopping.
But the supermarket said seven in ten customers now use the stores for convenience, buying food only for that day.
Tesco said the shift in how the stores are being used by customers meant it has been forced to simplify how they are run. Metro: Hardest hit by cuts Changes will include faster and simpler ways of filling shelves, staff working across a range of roles and a pared-back management structure.
It is understood that staff hours could also change.
Tesco has also been experimenting with technology to allow customers to scan and pay for their groceries on their smartphone without visiting a till. Last year it opened a completely cashless store at its headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
The job cuts are the latest to be announced by Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis, 54, who was paid £4.6million last year. Nicknamed Drastic Dave, he has cut more than 10,000 staff since 2014 when he was brought in to turn around the supermarket.
Jason Tarry, chief executive of Tesco’s UK and Ireland business, said: ‘In a challenging, evolving retail environment, with increasing cost pressures, we have to continue to review the way we run our stores to ensure we reflect the way our customers are shopping and do so in the most efficient way.
‘We do not take any decision which impacts colleagues lightly, but have to make sure we remain relevant for customers and operate a sustainable business now and in the future.’
The job cuts prompted fresh calls for the Government to support troubled shopkeepers.
Pauline Foulkes of the union Usdaw said: ‘This issue is not confined to Tesco, our high streets are in crisis, with jobs being lost due to shops closing, retailers folding and businesses engaging in significant restructuring to survive.’
The Daily Mail is campaigning to save our high streets by calling for a reform to business rates and a fair tax for online retailers to create a level playing field.
‘Our high streets are in crisis’