Asda: 3,000 office jobs at risk as pandemic sees shoppers move online
Asda has launched a major restructuring which could put around 3,000 back office staff at risk, as consumer habits change in the wake of the pandemic.
The supermarket giant has launched consultations with around 5,000 staff members and said the major restructuring has been driven by the “structural shift” towards online grocery shopping during the Covid pandemic.
The grocery firm said it also plans to create around 4,500 jobs in its online operations this year and will look to hire staff affected by the potential cuts.
The cutbacks will particularly affecting staff with cash and administrative roles amid the continued slump in cash transactions.
Dartford and Heston home shopping centres stores are earmarked for closure, with around 800 jobs affected, as the company looks to shift more picking operations into stores.
It added that around 1,100 of its store management roles will be changed to support online grocery operations as more picking takes place in stores.
However, the company said this could increase the total headcount in these roles by around 60, as part of the consultations.
Roger Burnley, Asda chief executive officer and president, said: “The pandemic has accelerated change across the retail sector especially the shift towards grocery home shopping and our priority is to serve customers in the way they want to shop with us.
“The last 12 months have shown us that businesses have to be prepared to adapt quickly to change and I am incredibly proud of the way we demonstrated our agility and resilience through the pandemic.
“We know that these proposed changes will be unsettling for colleagues and our priority is to support them during this consultation process.
“Our plans to transform the business will result in more roles being created than those we propose to remove and our absolute aim is to ensure as many colleagues as possible stay with us, as well as creating the opportunity to welcome new people to our business.”
It comes months after the billionaire Issa brothers and private equity backer TDR Capital agreed a £6.8 billion deal for the supermarket chain.
The takeover is still awaiting approval from competition regulators, so the new owners are yet to take control of Asda’s operations.