Tesco have announced plans to replace 1,700 of their deputy managers in their ‘Express’ stores.
These will be replaced by 3,200 lower paid “shift leaders”, with the company option to employ 1,500 more of these, in an attempt to ease the workload. According to the retail giant, deputy managers will either be moved to another store, offered redundancy or given a new role within the company.
In January, Tesco announced cuts to 1000 jobs, as part of the plan to reduce the number of distribution centres used in the UK. A spokesperson for the company said: “For any that do make the change from deputy manager to shift leader, we’ll be financially supporting them.”
Over the last few years, the traditional powerhouses of retailing have faced growing competition from ‘discount supermarkets’ Lidl and Aldi. This increased competition, alongside changes to shopping habits, has meant that the ‘big four’ have had to alter their plans for expansion. A number of stores across the country have closed due to poor performance, while plans to introduce new stores have been scrapped.
Earlier in February, Waitrose announced that they would have to close six stores in the UK, as well as streamlining their management, with 880 jobs cut in total in its 350 stores.
Like-for-like sales for Tesco, which don’t factor in the impact of new store openings, rose 0.7 per cent in the UK.