UK's Sainsbury's to cut over 3,000 roles in cost savings drive

BRITISH supermarket group Sainsbury’s said on Thursday (Jan 23) it was proposing to reduce its headcount by over 3,000 roles as it seeks savings to counter a “particularly challenging cost environment”.

The group, which trails only Tesco in UK grocery market share, said it plans a 20 per cent reduction of senior management roles.

Sainsbury’s also proposes to close the remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters in its stores, as well the remaining 61 Sainsbury’s Cafes.

It said it would look to redeploy staff where it could.

“We are facing into a particularly challenging cost environment, which means we have had to make tough choices about where we can afford to invest and where we need to do things differently to make our business more efficient and effective,” said CEO Simon Roberts. REUTERS