‘Redundancy the last option’ as Asda plan bakery restructure
SUPERMARKET giant Asda has started consulting with more than 1,000 staff in a major plan to restructure its in-store bakeries.
The company has said it is treating redundancy as ‘the last option’ during the consultation, which it says has been sparked by changing tastes among its shoppers.
As many as 1,200 staff work at the in-store bakeries across 341 Asda branches.
The supermarket giant has local stores in Leek and Cheadle as well as Tunstall, Wolstanton, Fenton, Bucknall, Stafford, Crewe and Alsager. It is unclear which ones would currently be hit.
“If the proposals are enacted, the priority will be to move as many colleagues as possible into alternative roles within Asda, with redundancy the last option,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Customers are increasingly looking for speciality breads, wraps, bagels and pancakes ahead of traditional loaves.
The shift will see a centralised bakery delivering a larger range of pre-baked goods to supermarkets each day, replacing the current model where the goods are baked from scratch on site.
The move is a similar one to Tesco, which closed a number of in-store food counters just over a year ago putting around 1,800 jobs at risk in the process.
The chain said at the time it would do less baking from scratch in stores, citing a similar shift away from traditional loaves and bread.
Asda chief merchandising officer Derek Lawlor said: “The current in-store bakery model has restricted our ability to respond to changing customer demands and offer them the speciality products and freshly baked goods they want to buy throughout the day.
“The changes we are proposing will deliver a much better and more consistent bakery offering for customers across all our stores. We know these proposed changes will be unsettling for colleagues and our priority is to support them during this process.”
Asda was sold by US giant Walmart for £6.8 billion in December last year to Mohsin and Zuber Issa, brothers who made their billions from petrol stations.
However the decision to slash the bakeries was taken independently of the Issa brothers. The Competition and Markets Authority has taken out an order which prevents them exercising influence over Asda until it can assess the deal.