The move comes as the Leeds-based firm looks for ways to reduce costs after its losses surged to £1 billion last year.
All functions at Asda House will be impacted by the redundancies, with our sister publication The Grocer reporting that this could include a number of senior buying manager roles, following a restructure of its commercial buying team over the past month.
Employees were notified of the proposals earlier this week, with managers informing affected colleagues individually.
Asda said the changes are designed to “create larger roles with greater spans of responsibility”, leading to simplified teams and supporting improved decision-making.
Ongoing cost pressures
This would mark the latest round of redundancies at the UK’s third-largest grocer, which is facing soaring debt interest costs and a falling market share.
In total, Asda cut close to 7,500 jobs across its operations last year in a drastic attempt to bring down costs.
This included around 1,000 roles within its George clothing division, after it outsourced and relocated fulfilment for George.com online orders to a single DHL depot in Derby.
Next phase of turnaround
“We’ve made good progress since launching our Formula for Growth plan 18 months ago, re-establishing our low-price credentials, improving availability and building new partnerships,” an Asda spokesperson told The Grocer.
“At the same time, we are operating in a highly competitive market and know we need to be more consistent across all parts of the business,” they added.
“As we move into the next phase of our turnaround, we’re making changes to our Home Office teams to simplify how we’re organised and how teams work together day to day. This is about making Asda simpler and faster to run by reducing complexity, improving collaboration and enabling quicker, better decisions for our customers.”
