Asda redundancies: Asda just recently said that it will be cutting 475 jobs at its main offices in Leeds and Leicestershire. The business said these changes are part of a plan to restructure in order to make things easier and stay competitive in a tough market. Less than 10 percent of the supermarket’s head office staff were let go.
Starting in January 2025, Asda will also make employees in the head office work in the office at least three days a week. Lord Stuart Rose, the chairman of Asda, says that the goal of this move away from hybrid work is to make it easier for people to work together.
The grocery store said the changes were needed to “simplify structures” and “get rid of duplication” between roles. Fixed-term contractors working on Asda’s IT transformation project will also be affected by these cuts. They will leave over the next few months as the project comes to an end.
The news comes after a recent change in who owns Asda. The equity firm TDR Capital bought Asda in 2020 with the Issa brothers. It recently bought out Zuber Issa’s shares, giving it a 67.5% stake. On the other hand, Mohsin Issa, who quit as an executive, still owns 22.5% of the company, and Walmart owns the last 10%.
Rose told staff about Asda’s plans for growth in a message, mentioning things like the opening of Asda Express stores and the Asda Rewards program. The changes would help Asda “deliver a more flexible and fast-moving” work environment, he said. He said that these changes will let workers make choices more quickly, which will help Asda focus on its stores and meet customer needs.
The company said that restructuring can be “unsettling,” but they were sure that the changes would help Asda focus on long-term growth and better customer service in 2025.