Sainsbury’s is stripping out thousands of management jobs from its stores to save money as it faces an intensifying grocery price war.
On Tuesday, Sainsbury’s staff were told that it plans to axe the roles of deputy manager, department manager, team leader and store supervisor, a shake-up that puts thousands of jobs at risk. It is replacing deputies with a smaller number of operations managers. The other, more junior, management roles, are being combined under the new title of customer and trading manager.
Sainsbury’s said overall headcount would not be altered by the exercise. However, many of the staff affected are expected to opt for redundancy rather than accept a lower-paid job. For team leaders and store supervisors, there is the potential to move from being paid by the hour to a salaried role.
Sainsbury’s warned earlier this month of a challenging market after a tough Christmas for its Argos chain. The big supermarket chains are trying to make savings as profits are squeezed by rising business costs and and intensifying competition from Aldi and Lidl.
Sainsbury’s retail and operations director, Simon Roberts, said the store changes would result in a more efficient and effective management structure: “They will deliver cost savings to be invested in our customer offer and in our colleagues as they continue to provide the very best service for our customers.”
Tesco announced on Monday it was stripping out a layer of management from stores, putting up to 1,700 jobs at risk, in a bid to cut costs by £1.5bn.
The Guardian revealed last month that more than 800 senior Asda shopfloor workers were facing a pay cut or redundancy after the chain embarked on a further cost-cutting drive.
In October, Sainsbury announced 2,000 store and back-office roles would go in a shake-up of its HR departments. That followed a head office cull in the summer, which eliminated 1,000 jobs.
