Tesco axes 1,200 head office jobs in cost-cutting drive

Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) is axing 1,200 jobs at its head office as part of a cost-cutting drive.

The supermarket giant informed affected staff on Wednesday morning about the move, which affects employees at offices in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, as well as a support office in India.

It comes a week after Tesco outlined plans to shed 1,100 jobs as it closes a call centre in Cardiff - and said the retail sector was "facing unprecedented challenges".

Chief (Taiwan OTC: 3345.TWO - news) executive Dave Lewis has been seeking to turn around the fortunes of the business since taking over in 2014 amid falling sales and profits.

Earlier this month, the supermarket reported its best quarterly sales growth since 2010 despite tough market conditions, helped by efforts to hold back inflation pressures to keep prices low for customers.

In the latest jobs announcement, the group said it was making changes to simplify its organisation and reduce duplication and cost as well as allowing it to "invest in serving shoppers better".

Tesco said: "This is a significant next step to continue the turnaround of the business.

"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."

Pauline Foulkes, national officer at shopworkers' union Usdaw, said: "Tesco's head office staff are understandably very concerned that the company is proposing further large-scale job losses."

She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) said the union would hold consultation talks with Tesco over the plans in coming weeks.