Sainsbury’s axes 300 jobs as part of cost-cutting drive

Sainsbury’s is set to axe 300 jobs across its store support centres with plans to outsource the roles.

First reported by Retail Week, the grocer will outsource the roles to Accenture, impacting employees working in food commercial, finance operations and people services and HR in Sainsbury’s central offices in Manchester, Holborn in London, and Ansty in Warwickshire.

The changes come as Sainsbury’s ramps up its cost-cutting drive, which it calls its ‘save to invest’ programme.

As part of the programme it has created a new Sainsbury’s Business Services team, which will be led by chief transformation officer Graham Biggart. The team will look at where to “drive efficiencies across the business”.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told Retail Sector: “We are focused on our plans to put food back at the heart of Sainsbury’s. To achieve this, we are becoming a more simple, nimble and efficient business so that we can reinvest in what matters most to customers – low prices, exciting new products and convenient ways to shop.”

“We are talking to a small proportion of our store support centre colleagues about some changes we are proposing to the way we work. Colleagues affected will enter into a consultation process and we are supporting them through this in any way we can.”

They added: “This includes exploring alternative roles within Sainsbury’s, as well as providing independent support with job opportunities elsewhere as part of a redundancy package which far exceeds statutory requirements.”