1,200 jobs axed as Tesco bids to save £1.5bn

TESCO is to axe 1,200 jobs at its head office as it ramps up its £1.5bn cost-cutting drive.

The cut, which hits one in four staff at the supermarket’s offices in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire, comes just a week after the firm announced 1,100 jobs will go at its call centre in Cardiff.

Tesco is in the midst of a turnaround plan under boss dave Lewis – nicknamed drastic dave – and said the cuts would help simplify the way it does business.

Tesco cut 5,000 UK jobs in 2014 and 4,000 jobs overseas, and then 2,500 jobs in 2015 with the closure of 48 stores.

Another 3,000 jobs were put at risk in April when the company announced it is cutting night shifts for shelf-stackers.

Union bosses fear more roles will go. Pauline Foulkes, national officer at the shop workers’ union Usdaw, said: ‘Head office staff are understandably very concerned that the company is proposing further large scale job losses. our priorities are to keep as many staff as possible in employment and to get the best possible deal for our members.’

The cuts come as Tesco embarks on a turnaround plan to see off the threat of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

The big four grocers – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda – have all lost market share to the German upstarts which now account for 11.9pc of the market in the UK. Supermarkets have been seeking to protect customers against grocery inflation, which now stands at 3.2pc, adding an extra £133 to the average household’s annual shopping bill.

Lewis, chief executive of Tesco since 2014, has cut costs to streamline the business to allow expansion. The firm made a £ 3.7bn swoop on wholesaler Booker earlier this year to spur growth.