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J Sainsbury is cutting 3,000 jobs as the UK’s second-largest supermarket chain seeks to cut costs and simplify its business.
The layoffs, which represent 2 percent of the group’s workforce, will result from the closure of remaining cafes and sweeping changes at management level.
Around 20 percent of management positions are expected to be cut, Sainsbury’s announced on Thursday.
The move comes after the company announced last year it would cut costs by £1 billion over the next three years.
The reorganization also comes in what chief executive Simon Roberts called a “particularly challenging cost environment” as retailers struggle with rising costs and taxes.
The grocery chain said it was overhauling the structure of its central management teams “to support faster decision-making and improve performance” at Sainsbury’s and Argos, which is also owned by the group.
This would result in fewer head office positions and clearer accountability, the company said, adding that the changes would take effect in the coming months.
Roberts said the company “has had to make some 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.”
