Tesco to axe 1,200 jobs at its head office

Tesco is to axe 1,200 jobs at its head office, with around a quarter of staff at its in Welwyn Garden City facing redundancy.

The move is part of a new service model, which Tesco said would change the way it did business to serve shoppers better.

Staff were told of the cuts this morning, which come on top of thousands of HQ job cuts announced by Tesco boss David Lewis in 2015, soon after he took over at the retailer, amounting to a reduction of a third of staff.

It also comes just a week after Tesco announced 1,100 jobs were to go at its Cardiff call centre, which is closing as all operations move to its other centre in Dundee.

Tesco’s slashing on HQ jobs comes just days after the retailer announced what it called its “biggest ever investment” in staff with a two-year deal to increase hourly pay rates by 10.5% by 2020. Tesco said the changes, together with its benefits package, which includes colleague bonus plan and pension, would take the average store colleague to an equivalent hourly rate of £9.52 come 2020.

A Tesco spokesman said: “Today we have shared with colleagues across Tesco changes that we plan to make to the way we operate our business. This is a significant next step to continue the turnaround of the business.

“This new service model will simplify the way we organise ourselves, reduce duplication and cost but also, very importantly, allow us to invest in serving shoppers better. We have made good progress so far in our turnaround but we have more to do. We will work with colleagues to support them as we go through this important transition.”

In February 2016, The Grocer revealed Tesco had considered a scenario plan for 39,000 store staff cuts over the following three years , the equivalent of Tesco shedding one in six employees, although it vehemently denied that it had any firm plans to follow up the modelling.

Tesco’s slashing of HQ jobs comes just days afterTesco announced what it called its “biggest ever investment” in staff with a two-year deal to increase hourly pay rates by 10.5% by 2020.