Sainsbury’s axes managers

Sainsbury’S is to lay off hundreds more managers as part of a half-billion pound costsaving drive.

the job losses will come on top of cuts made last year which eliminated 20pc of the grocer’s senior leadership team.

the latest wave of departures comes as a result of the further integration of Sainsbury’s with Argos, the consumer electronics and homeware group that it bought for £1.4bn in 2016.

in particular, there will be moves to reduce the payroll by fusing more teams in the commercial, retail, financial, digital, technology and human resources departments.

Sainsbury’s declined to put a figure on the number of jobs lost in the original 20pc reduction in management headcount, and yesterday would say only that the new cuts would run into the hundreds.

recently, it announced disappointing Christmas sales, with like-for-like turnover, excluding fuel, falling 0.7pc in the 15 weeks to January 4.

Clothing sales rose 4.4pc, general merchandise dropped 3.9pc while grocery sales climbed 0.4pc.

Mike Coupe, chief executive, told staff: ‘We have to adapt to continue to meet the demands of our customers now and in the future and, while change can be hard, it’s also necessary. truly integrating our business also unlocks efficiencies that we can reinvest in the things that matter most to our customers.’

Coupe added that there was ‘a sense of momentum across the business’.

Shares closed 1.7pc, or 3.6p, down at 212.4p.