LONDON: British supermarket group Sainsbury’s yesterday announced plans to cut about 1,500 jobs to slash costs as the sector increasingly automates its operations.
Britain’s second biggest supermarket after Tesco had announced earlier this month cost savings of £1 billion (US$1.3 billion), without detailing the number of job losses.
Sainsbury’s employs about 162,000 staff.
The job cuts will be spread across head office, food-sorting centres and in-store bakeries, Sainsbury’s said in a statement Thursday.
It noted that “further investment in technology and automation” meant it needed fewer centres for sorting and packaging food.
Supermarkets, meanwhile, are increasingly installing self-service checkouts.
Elsewhere Thursday, the UK arm of The Body Shop cosmetics group confirmed the loss of nearly 500 jobs with the closure of about 75 shops following recent poor sales.