Morrisons joins Sainsbury’s in slashing hundreds of jobs to trim costs

Morrisons is set to cut over 200 jobs from its retail people team as part of a significant cost-saving initiative, becoming the latest supermarket to announce such measures as it navigates the challenging economic landscape of 2025.

The move follows CEO Rami Baitiéh’s comments last month about the “avalanche of costs” businesses will face after the government’s October Budget.

The impacted roles, which include positions in customer experience, employee engagement, recruitment, and payroll, are part of the supermarket’s restructuring efforts, The Grocer reported.

A spokesperson for the supermarket told the title: “We have recently carried out a review of our People structure to ensure we are offering our stores and sites a timely and consistent service.

“We are therefore proposing to remove the roles of regional people manager, store people manager and case specialist from our structure, meaning colleagues in these roles are being placed at risk of redundancy.”

“The new structure will consist of a number of new central roles to support our supermarkets directly along with central HR support and additional employee relations roles. Before any final decisions are taken, we will undertake a minimum 45-day consultation process.”

It comes as Sainsbury’s revealed on Thursday that it would be axing 3,000 roles and closing the remainder of its in-store cafés as part of CEO Simon Robert’s £1bn cost saving plans.

Analysts have predicted that further job cuts could be on the horizon as supermarkets look to address mounting economic challenges and concerns about rising food price inflation.

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Earlier this month, Asda confirmed it would be cutting 13 regional managers to streamline operations and reduce duplication. Meanwhile, Morrisons, which garnered praise for its turnaround under CEO Baitiéh, saw marginal sales growth of just 0.4% over Christmas, according to the latest Kantar figures.

Baitiéh, who joined Morrisons from Carrefour in 2023, is expected to release the supermarket’s fourth quarter and full-year results next week, with a focus on improving availability and service. However, the retailer is under pressure to maintain its competitive edge against the likes of grocery giant Tesco and the growing discounter market.

The news of the job cuts was met with widespread support for the impacted staff on social media.

One former employee shared their thoughts on LinkedIn, saying, “I was really sad to read via LinkedIn the decision that Morrisons has made today with their people teams.

“I think Morrisons has underestimated just how much the people teams contributed to the business, especially during those Covid years when People Managers stepped up and delivered a recruitment campaign never ever witnessed.”

Another former team member said: “I wish all my former colleagues the very best, this will be a massive loss to the business.”