Tesco announce a further 1,200 job cuts

Retail giant Tesco (LON:TSCO) will be cutting 1,200 jobs from its head office.

The news comes just after the supermarket announced plans to cut 1,100 jobs from its call centre in Cardiff as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

“Today we have shared with colleagues across Tesco changes that we plan to make to the way we operate our business,” the company said.

“This is a significant next step to continue the turnaround of the business. This new service model will simplify the way we organise ourselves, reduce duplication and cost but also, very importantly, allow us to invest in serving shoppers better.

“We have made good progress so far in our turnaround but we have more to do. We will work with colleagues to support them as we go through this important transition.”

25 percent of those staff at offices in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield face losing their jobs.

“Tesco’s head office staff are understandably very concerned that the company is proposing further large-scale job losses.” said Pauline Foulkes, from the shopworkers’ union Usdaw.

“Usdaw reps and officials are providing support to our members at this difficult time. We will now enter into consultation talks with the company over the coming weeks to look at the business case for their proposed restructuring.

“Our priorities are to keep as many staff as possible in employment and to get the best possible deal for our members. In the meantime, we are continuing to provide the help and advice Usdaw members need through this process.”

Chief executive of Tesco, Dave Lewis, has been called “Drastic Dave”, for leading the supermarket to a turnaround since 2014.

The supermarket has seen a “significant market out-performance” as it upped its UK like-for-like sales growth by 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017.