SAINSBURY’S is set to make a major change at stores and it will leave shoppers furious.
One of the UK’s biggest supermarkets is axing all remaining patisserie, bakery, rotisserie and pizza counters in its bigger branches.
It will also shutter 61 existing in-store cafes and cut 3,000 head office staff.
The changes to counters announced by Sainsbury’s don’t apply to smaller Local stores.
The most popular items currently being sold from patisserie and pizza counters will be moved to shelves 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.
Chickens usually sold at the rotisserie counters will be shifted to hot cabinets next to sandwich fridges.
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 supermarket was facing a “challenging cost environment”.
He added: “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.”
Sainsbury’s said the decision to close its remaining 61 cafes was being taken as less of its loyal customer base was using them.
The supermarket said its hybrid cafe and food halls were becoming popular among shoppers.
It is likely to replace the cafes with restaurants run by franchises, such as Starbucks and Gourmet Burger Kitchen, which already have sites in some of its stores.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D103972%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]This is the full list of cafes which will be closing:
- Fosse Park
- Pontypridd
- Rustington
- Scarborough
- Penzance
- Denton
- Wrexham
- Longwater
- Ely
- Pontllanfraith
- Emersons Green
- Nantwich
- Pinhoe Road
- Pepper Hill – Northfleet
- Marshall Lake
- Rhyl
- Lincoln
- Bridgemead
- Larkfield
- Whitchurch Bargates
- Sedlescombe Road
- Barnstaple
- Dewsbury
- Kings Lynn Hardwick
- Truro
- Warren Heath
- Godalming
- Hereford
- Chichester
- Bognor Regis
- Newport
- Talbot Heath
- Rugby
- Cannock
- Leek
- Winterstoke Road
- Hazel Grove
- Morecambe
- Darlington
- Monks Cross
- Marsh Mills
- Springfield
- Durham
- Bamber Bridge
- Weedon Road
- Hempstead Valley
- Hedge End
- Bury St Edmunds
- Thanet Westwood Cross
- Stanway
- Castle Point
- Isle of Wight
- Keighley
- Swadlincote
- Leicester North
- Wakefield Marsh Way
- Torquay
- Waterlooville
- Macclesfield
- Harrogate
- Cheadle
HEAD OFFICE JOB CUTS
Sainsbury’s also said today it wants to reorganise its head office departments to “become dedicated to different needs” of the business, meaning 3,000 roles will be axed.
It will see about 20% of senior management roles cut at the supermarket giant as part of plans to focus on fewer, bigger roles and to simplify its head office and management teams.
The cuts come after Sainsbury’s announced its “biggest ever” Christmas trading period and said profit for the full-year would likely be between £1.01 billion and £1.06 billion earlier in January.
But the supermarket is also trying to cut costs by £1 billion-a-year, and last year it cut about 1,500 roles, mostly from a contact centre in Cheshire.
The company said in late 2024 that tax increases from the October Budget would hit it with an extra £140 million in costs, warning that the changes would 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.
It comes after Sainsbury’s said it would give staff a 5% pay rise this year, with salaries rising by up to £13.85 an hour by August.
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, said 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”.
SUPERMARKETS AXING SECTIONS
Sainsbury’s is not the first supermarket to announce a major overhaul of its stores, with Tesco ditching delis and hot food counters in 2023.
The move came after the retailer said it had seen a big drop in demand for the use of its counters in the preceding years.
Tesco said all staff working across the sections would be offered new roles in the business.
The move to close the underused counters started in 2019, when Tesco also said it would axe 9,000 jobs.
Earlier this month, Morrisons also said it would scale back operations at its Rathbones bakery hub in Wakefield, The Grocer reported.
The 28,000 square foot facility will stop making specialist bakery products and pump out less produce.