Just three months into 2025 many UK supermarkets have been quick to embark on cost-cutting drives, slashing jobs, cafes and some specialised in-store departments.

The cutbacks follow a string of tough years for the sector. A quarter of a million retail jobs have been lost in the last five years, with 2024 employment figures reaching their lowest level since data collection began in 1996.

British Retail Consortium (BRC) chief executive Helen Dickinson has warned that “worse could be yet to come” as additional strains are poised to hit the sector.

These include changes set out in last October’s Budget, which Dickinson said have “forced retailer wage bills up by over £5bn,” such as rises in employer National Insurance Contributions and the increased National Living Wage, which have made hiring “significantly more costly”.

Supermarket CEOs including Morrisons’ Rami Baitiéh have since called on the government to space out the “avalanche of costs” set to hit businesses next month.

But with many grocers having already made decisions to cut costs, we round up the changes that have been made so far.

Morrisons

Morrisons is putting 365 staff at risk of redundancy as part of a cost-cutting drive intended to help mitigate recent cost increases, as the company enters the second year of its renewal programme.

Proposed changes over the next few months include the closure of 52 Cafés, all 18 Market Kitchens, 17 convenience stores, 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters and four pharmacies.

Morrisons chief executive Rami Baitiéh described the changes as “a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons”.

Aldi

Last month, Aldi began consulting over proposals to restructure some head office teams, in a move that could see up to 350 jobs cut.

The changes are understood to affect some roles in the buying departments, including non-food, and finance, as well as some back-office functions.

A spokesperson for Aldi told Grocery Gazette: “To support our continued growth and to offer the best experience to our customers, we are consulting over proposals to restructure some head office teams.

“No customer facing roles are affected, and no final decisions will be made until the consultation process is complete. We are committed to supporting our colleagues throughout this process. Wherever possible, we will seek to redeploy affected colleagues within the business.”

Tesco

Tesco is slashing 400 store and head office jobs. UK CEO Matthew Barnes said the supermarket is searching for “new, more efficient ways of working”.

The cuts form part of a plan to “simplify” the business to operate in a “more competitive than ever” grocery sector.

In January, the grocer started speaking to colleagues about a string of proposed changes across its head office and stores, including changing its bakery model in some stores and updating its management structure in Tesco Mobile phone shops.

Barnes said: “These are difficult decisions affecting our colleagues, but we believe they are necessary to enable us to invest in what matters most to our customers.”

Sainsbury’s

In January, Sainsbury’s unveiled plans to shut 61 cafés and close its remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters, with over 3,000 jobs to be cut.

Chief executive Simon Roberts said the redundancies and closures came amid a “particularly challenging cost environment”.

The grocer said the majority of its most loyal shoppers do not use the cafés regularly, adding that all of the most popular items from its patisserie, hot food and pizza counters would be made available in the aisles for shoppers.

Sainsbury’s said the changes are designed to drive faster decision making and bring costs down through an estimated 20% reduction in senior management roles over the next few months.

Asda

At the start of the year, Asda chairman Allan Leighton introduced a series of cost-cutting measures, including redundancies, as he warned of a long road ahead for the struggling supermarket.

The grocery giant revealed the axing of 13 regional managers as part of a senior shake-up, designed to increase performance and cut costs.

In an internal memo released to staff on 7 January, seen by The Telegraph, Asda bosses confirmed the supermarket’s branches will be managed across 22 “sub-regions”, a drop from 30.

The memo added: “Change is never easy and unfortunately we have had to say goodbye to a number of colleagues”.

Ocado

Ocado is set to trim its research and development (R&D) workforce in the UK and globally as part of the company’s broader goal to achieve positive cash flow by 2026.

Speaking of the changes last month, chief executive Tim Steiner emphasised that the total figure would be “significantly” fewer than the 1,000 redundancies made across the business in 2023-24. However, he did not specify the exact number of job cuts expected.

He said: “The cost reductions we’re targeting are a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce.”

The technology giant said the plans to scale back R&D spending came in a bid to cut costs, having invested over £800m in the division over the past four years.

Steiner stated that the decision is “never something that’s easy or that we take lightly”, adding that “it’s a very difficult day for us to have to announce that”.