Staff at Burnham-On-Sea’s Tesco supermarket face a nervous wait after the company this week announced 9,000 jobs are at risk across the UK as part of efforts to “simplify” the business and reduce costs.
As part of the shake-up, the supermarket giant said it aims to redeploy 4,500 employees – around half of those at risk.
Sweeping changes across the business will include a reduction in meat, fish and deli counters, with 90 stores set to lose the service altogether and the remaining 700 trading with either a full or flexible offer.
Several staff at the Burnham’s store in Ben Travers Way told Burnham-On-Sea.com on Monday that they have not yet been told whether any jobs will be affected.
Tesco has denied national media reports that it also plans to overhaul its in-store bakeries, saying that no significant changes are planned this year.
Jason Tarry, CEO of Tesco UK and Ireland, said: “In our four years of turnaround we’ve made good progress, but the market is challenging and we need to continually adapt to remain competitive and respond to how customers want to shop.”
“We’re making changes to our UK stores and head office to simplify what we do and how we do it, so we’re better able to meet the needs of our customers.”
“This will impact some of our colleagues and our commitment is to minimise this as much as possible and support our colleagues throughout,” Mr Tarry added.
Responding to the news, trade union Usdaw’s national officer Pauline Foulkes said: “This is devastating news for staff, who have played a crucial role in Tesco’s turnaround project, contributing to 12 successive quarters of growth, solid Christmas trading and over a billion pounds of profit.”
Ms Foulkes added: “We will enter into consultation talks with Tesco, where we will examine the business case for their proposed changes.”
