Huge Kent Tesco distribution centre looks set to close as supermarket launches consultation

Tesco is to launch a consultation in the next few days on the closure of its distribution centre in Snodland in Kent. The announcement comes after Tesco revealed it would be investing in a new distribution centre three miles away, at Aylesford.

The supermarket said all staff affected by a closure of the Snodland site, which is in Hays Road, would be offered a job at the Aylesford centre, the Mirror Online reports. A quick check online shows Tesco continues to advertise jobs for its Snodland site.

The news comes as Tesco has revealed plans to cut 400 jobs from across its stores, including roles at head office, management roles in Tesco Mobile Phone shops, and some bakery positions.

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Tesco UK chief executive officer Matthew Barnes said: "These are difficult decisions affecting our colleagues, but we believe they are necessary to enable us to invest in what matters most to our customers."

"Our priority is to support impacted colleagues, and we will do everything we can to help them find alternative roles within our business. Today, we have almost 1,000 vacancies available.”

Sainsbury's shedding roles

Sainsbury's has said it is shedding 3,000 roles, or around two per cent of its workforce. It will be shutting all of its 61 in-store cafes, and removing its pizza and hot food counters from branches. And a fifth of senior managers will be axed.

Sainsbury's chief executive Simon Roberts said the supermarket was “facing into a particularly challenging cost environment” and 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.”

Morrisons axing jobs

Morrisons is also set to cut more than 200 jobs, including in customer experience, employee engagement, recruitment, and payroll. A Morrisons' spokesperson told The Grocer: “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.”