As part of a major cost cutting drive, Asda cut up to 300 jobs at the head office in West Yorkshire.
The affected staff were told of the news on Wednesday. The supermarket chain instructed those no longer with jobs to leave their posts immediately.
On top of the 288 cut of jobs, the Walmart owned chain has changed job descriptions of a further 800 members of staff.
“At Asda, we value each and every one of our colleagues. The changes are in response to the ever changing sector in which we’re working and the need to adapt to create an agile business which is fit for the future.” said a spokesperson for Asda.
Asda is the UK’s third-largest supermarket behind Tesco and Sainsbury’s. It has suffered by the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl. 2016 figures released this month showed that the like-for-like sales fell by 5.7 percent compared with September last year.
The new chief executive, Sean Clarke, is amidst a turnaround for the supermarket and tackle the falling sales.
Asda admitted earlier this year they were “behind expectations”.
“We are currently in discussions with a number of our stores about changes that are needed to the number of hours required to run that store for our customers,”
“It is common practice for a supermarket to need to make changes to hours based on the changing shopping habits of customers. We understand that any conversations about change are unsettling but it is always our upmost priority to find alternative roles or working patterns for impacted colleagues.”
Asda is not the only supermarket to carry out cost-cutting measures. Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) announced plans in August to cut 1,000 jobs from the head office. Tesco (LON:TSCO) is axing 2,300 staff at the head office as well as staff at its Cardiff call centre – due to close early next year.