Supermarket giant Morrisons is to cut 2,600 jobs as part of a restructuring plan.
A 45-day consultation process about plans to take out two tiers of management in its stores will begin as it attempts to cut costs in order to fund lower prices for customers. The move comes following three years of slimmed-down management trials over the past year.
Former chairman Sir Ken Morrison had lambasted the chain over poor service in its stores, which he blamed on reduced staff hours.
The new structure will bring together the roles of department managers, looking after specific areas with supervisors. Around 1,000 of those staff will be promoted to more senior roles and Morrisons plans to find new positions more locally or at new stores, which is expected to create 4,000 jobs later this year.
Reduce costs
Morrisons is under pressure to reduce costs to fund £1bn in price cuts and product improvements over the next three years. Last month saw it introduce price cuts on 1,200 items by an average of 17%.
Of 126,000 employees, the structural changes will mean around 26,000 will lose their jobs.
Last month, its competitor Asda also announced a major restructuring, which put 4,100 jobs into consultation. The Walmart-owned company said it would ditch existing department manager roles and would create section leader posts.
It claimed the creation of the new position would create 5,000 new roles – meaning a net increase of 900 jobs.
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