Iceland, the supermarket chain recently acquired by Baugur as part of its purchase of the Big Food Group, is cutting a third of its workforce at its Deeside headquarters in Flintshire.

The company, which employs 20,000 people across the UK, is in consultations with the workforce and it reportedly wants to shed 400 of the 1,200 jobs by the middle of June this year.

Marlcolm Walker, Iceland’s chief executive, is reported to have said: “I deeply regret that one of the first actions of the new management team has to be to seek a radical reduction in head office staffing, but this is absolutely essential if the business as a whole is to move forward.”