17th Jun 2014 14:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC Tuesday said it plans to cut around 2,600 management jobs as part of a plan to slim down its management structure across the business.
The UK's fourth largest supermarket retailer said in a statement its plans to cut the management jobs will modernise the way its stores are managed, with the aim of reducing in-store management tiers, simplifying responsibilities and improving customer service. It said some of its stores currently have seven tiers between the shop floor and the store manager.
It said the simplified management structure comes as the next step of its modernisation programme to turnaround the business.
"This is the right time to modernise the way our stores are managed. These changes will improve our focus on customers and lead to simpler, smarter ways of working," said Chief Executive Dalton Philips in a statement.
The supermarket's plan to slim down management comes at a time when Morrison's continues to underperform its rivals, with the business seeing widening losses, falling sales and declining market share, despite its efforts to invest huge amounts of money in price cuts to lure back customers.
Morrisons said Tuesday that the installation of new smarter systems will make stores simpler to manage and easier to replenish. So far it has trialled the new management structures and found that it led to stronger performance, the company said.
"Implementing the new store structure would bring together department managers and supervisor positions into a single and smaller tier of team managers," Philips added.
From this group, Morrisons said it is proposing to promote 1,000 into new duty manager roles to strengthen the senior management team in each store.
This year, the company will create 1,000 jobs in its local conveniences stores and 3,000 additional jobs in new supermarkets, Morrisons said, which should help to relocate a number of colleagues who will be made redundant due to the changes in management structure.
The grocer was hit by investor disquiet over its turnaround plan at the company's annual general meeting earlier this month, with significant protest votes against the re-election of Chief Executive Dalton Philips and the company's remuneration policy for management bonuses.
Morrisons shares were trading 1.7% higher Tuesday afternoon, at 191.40 pence.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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