Sainsbury's is to restructure its business into three main streams – fresh food, grocery and non-food – as part of a reorganisation that will lead to the loss of around 200 jobs at its Holborn headquarters.

The group said it was streamlining "some central teams to align them for… future growth" – despite a pledge to investors earlier this month from chief executive Justin King that no major job cuts were planned.

The supermarket giant told staff of the redundancies yesterday but denied reports that as many as 300 jobs could go in the overhaul.

"This will simplify activities and enable greater synergies across our supplier base," a spokesman for the group told The Times. "New jobs have also been created."

The appointments are likely to attract some scepticism. Two of the three trading roles will be filled by executives with no buying experience. Head of non-food Luke Jensen, who has been strategy director since March 2008, is a former management consultant at OC&C. Helen Buck, now in charge of grocery, has held a number of marketing and branding roles at Sainsbury's, M&S, Woolworths and Safeway.

In a busy day for the group, Sainsbury's yesterday also confirmed a brace of senior appointments. Andrew Mann is to join the group from Tesco as director of customer insight and loyalty, while Claire Harrison-Church becomes director of brand communications after a move from Alliance Boots.

Around 3,000 staff are currently based at the site in Holborn, which Sainsbury's plans to leave by 2011.


Read The Grocer this Saturday for more details.

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