GRAHAM HISCOTT

Struggling department store Debenhams is poised to axe one in four managers in a desperate bid to slash costs.

The 320 job cuts are the latest cull of white collar workers unleashed by retailers since the start of this year.

Supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, along with Topshop and Topman, have also earmarked a clear-out of middle managers amid turmoil on the high street.

Debenhams said it needed to strip out “complexity” in its management structure to bring “significant cost savings”.

The move could hit 25% of store management roles.

Debenhams recently announced plans to ramp up cost savings, with around another £10million earmarked for this financial year and £20m extra annually under a reorganisation led by chief executive Sergio Bucher.

It said: “The review has identified significant cost savings by reducing the complexity of management roles in stores as well as processes to optimise and standardise ways of working.

“The effect is that potentially 320 positions are at risk of redundancy – approximately 25% of store management roles.”

Richard Lim, chief executive of industry experts Retail Economics, said 2018 was already looking like “a year of distress for the UK retail industry”. The number of job losses at collapsed construction giant Carillion has reached nearly 1,000. Another 101 employees have been made redundant, following 454 earlier this week and 377 last Friday.

But the Official Receiver, overseeing Carillion’s liquidation, said a further 2,250 jobs had been saved as staff are taken on by new employers. TV AD Owen Wilson