Morrisons looks to hire 5,000 floor staff as head office jobs continue to be axed

Morrisons is set to create 5,000 new in-store jobs as the chief executive, David Potts, continues to cut many positions at the supermarket chain’s head office in Bradford.

While attempting to revive Morrisons’ dipping sales by boosting customer service, up to 720 head office roles will be axed in an attempt to restructure the company’s management, reports Sky News.

This latest employment shakeup comes less than a month after Mr Potts axed five major managers, including marketing & digital director Nick Collard, group retail director Martyn Fletcher, group property and strategy director Gordon Mowat, group logistics director Neal Austin and convenience managing director Nigel Robertson.

Morrisons have struggled to compete with other major supermarket chains in recent times, and at the start of the last month the supermarket chain announced the foreclosure of 23 storesafter reporting a pretax loss of £792m for the year ending 1st February - compared to a loss of £176m for the same period last year.

The chain’s difficulties were clearly indicated last year when it unveiled the new strategy of spending £1bn on price cuts over three years to compensate for the loss of customers to Aldi and Lidl.

Morrisons’ statement said: “Morrisons is reshaping the way that its business is staffed, investing in new store jobs to deliver better customer service, while also proposing a reduction in head office jobs.

“In its supermarkets, Morrisons has begun recruiting 5,000 shop floor staff to further improve service, increase availability, and open more checkouts. At its head office, the company is beginning a consultation about a simplified management structure.

“The number of people employed there has increased by 50% since 2008.”

Mr Potts added: “We are focusing on the things that matter to our customers. That means having more of our staff in our stores, improving product availability and helping customers at our checkouts.

“We believe our customers and our staff will appreciate the improvements.”

As part of its restructuring, Morrisons will also be prepared to provide “opportunities for voluntary redundancy.”

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