A MAJOR supermarket has offered jobs to Sainsbury’s staff set to be made redundant.
Iceland is encouraging workers at the rival retailer to apply for roles within the business.
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Iceland is encouraging Sainsbury’s head office staff to apply for rolesCredit: Paul Edwards
In posts on Facebook and X, the supermarket chain said it was “sorry to hear” 3,000 Sainsbury’s head office staff were set to be let go as part of a major restructuring plan.
It added: “If you or anyone you know has been affected, feel free to check out our careers page.”
It comes after Sainsbury’s this week said it would axe 3,000 roles from its head office as part of a management team overhaul.
The supermarket chain said the move will see about 20% of senior management roles cut.
The cuts come despite Sainsbury’s experiencing its “biggest ever” Christmas trading period.
The retailer said profit for the full-year would likely be between £1.01billion and £1.06billion earlier in January.
Earlier this month, it also said it will give tens of thousands of workers a 5% pay rise by August.
Hourly-paid staff will see their salaries hiked from £12 to £12.60 outside London and £13.15 to £13.85 outside the capital.
But the supermarket is also looking to cut costs by £1 billion-a-year, letting 1,500 staff go in 2024, mostly from a contact centre in Cheshire.
The company said in late 2024 that tax increases from the October Budget will hit it with an extra £140 million in costs, warning that the changes will also lead to higher inflation.
The Government is set to hike employer National Insurance contributions from 13.8% to 15% from April.
The threshold at which bosses will have to pay tax on workers’ pay is also being lowered from £9,100 to £5,000.
Meanwhile, the national minimum wage is also to be hiked, piling further pressure on employers.
The Unite union, which represents more than 7,000 Sainsbury’s workers, said the head office job cuts were a result of “corporate greed”, pointing to large profits at the retailer in recent years.
Bally Auluk, national officer of the shop workers union Usdaw, added it would be “working hard to ensure our members are supported throughout the process and as many people as possible remain in employment with the company”.
STORE LAYOUT CHANGE-UP
On the same day Sainsbury’s said it would make 3,000 staff redundant it also confirmed a major shake up of its store layout.
One of the UK’s biggest supermarkets said it will close the remaining 61 of its in-store cafes due to decreasing usage by customers.
It is likely to replace them with restaurants run by franchises like Starbucks and Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
Full list of Sainsbury’s cafes closing
Sainsbury’s also said it wants to get rid of all remaining patisserie, bakery, rotisserie and pizza counters at its larger shops.
The most popular items currently being sold from these counters will be moved to shelves or hot cabinets elsewhere in stores.
It means shoppers will still be able to get hold of bakery items like Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes, while self-service bread slicing machines will be introduced to stores.
A Sainsbury’s insider said the freed-up counter spaces will be replaced with areas selling gluten-free and dairy-free products.
Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said the decisions to let staff go and shake up its store layout had come amidst a “challenging” cost backdrop.
He said on Thursday: “The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum but have also meant some difficult choices impacting our dedicated colleagues in a number of parts of our business.
“We’ll be doing everything we can to support anyone impacted by today’s announcements.”
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