Tesco has confirmed it will close food counters - including the meat counters - in 90 of its stores as part of a wider cost-cutting plan that is expected to affect 9,000 staff.
The retailer has said its remaining fish, meat and deli counters in 700 stores will be run on a full-time or flexible basis. When approached by Meat Management, a spokesperson for Tesco commented: “We’re always looking at ways to run our business more simply and efficiently. Whenever we make changes in our business, colleagues are always the first to know.”
A newly released statement from Tesco also explains: "Not only are customers shopping in different ways, but we know that they have less time available to shop too - which means they are using our counters less frequently.
"We will be making changes to the counters in our large stores to ensure that we have the right offer for customers."
The announcement comes after an internal company email outlining cuts and changes to its operations was leaked and seen by the BBC. The leak led to Tesco's chief operating officer Tony Hogett acknowledging that any changes would be hard for the people affected and promising that more information would follow.
More than 10,000 jobs are believed to have been cut at Tesco since the current chief executive, Dave Lewis, took over in 2014.
Shopworkers’ trade union Usdaw responded to the media reports, with its national officer Pauline Foulkes commenting: “Reports and speculation in the media about significant job cuts are distressing for Tesco staff and it is appalling that they should hear about the future of their jobs in this way.
“Usdaw is seeking an urgent meeting with the company to clarify the situation, to examine the details of what changes they are proposing and what this means for staff."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
