Tesco cuts 4,500 jobs as it announces shorter opening hours for Express stores. UK. 10,000 jobs cuts in 5 years.

Brittany Vonow Hollie Borland. Updated: 5 Aug 2019, 15:40. TheSun.co.uk

TESCO is to axe 4,500 staff in the latest round of redundancies at the UK’s biggest supermarket, the company has announced.

The majority of job cuts will affect workers in 153 Metro stores, and a handful at Express branches and larger supermarkets.

It also plans to reduce opening hours in 134 Express stores, with doors opening later in the morning and closing earlier in the evenings.

The changes come as the company said they were working to “simplify and reduce processes”.

Metro stores are bigger than an Express branches, but smaller than a standard supermarket, and were originally designed to accommodate customers and their weekly shops.

But Tesco said that 70 per cent of Metro shoppers were using them as convenience stores.

To meet the demand, the supermarket chain said it wants staff to “work more flexibly” across the store but keeping less stock in the back.

The cuts will affect management jobs too, as well as shop floor staff, as the company looks to create a “leaner management structure”.

Talks with staff have already begun and the brand has promised to find alternative roles for affected staff within the company where possible.

Tesco is aiming to make £1.5billion worth of cost savings by 2020, with more than 10,000 jobs being cut since top boss Dave Lewis’ takeover in 2014.

It’s the second round of staff cuts this year, with 9,000 job losses on its fish, meat and deli counters announced back in January.

It followed another round of job losses announced at the beginning of 2018.

Jason Tarry, UK & ROI CEO, said: “In a challenging, evolving retail environment, with increasing cost pressures, we have to continue to review the way we run our stores to ensure we reflect the way our customers are shopping and do so in the most efficient way.

“We do not take any decision which impacts colleagues lightly, but have to make sure we remain relevant for customers and operate a sustainable business now and in the future.”

Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw), which represents over 160,000 Tesco staff, said it is calling for government action to tackle the crisis in retail.

Pauline Foulkes, Usdaw National Officer, said that members are “shocked and dismayed” over the fresh round of cuts.

She said: “We will be working hard to make sure that any members potentially affected by these proposals are supported at this difficult time and throughout the consultation period.”

Tesco has over 3,400 stores across the UK, including 153 Metro branches and 1,700 Express ones, and employs 450,000 workers

Despite the drive for cuts, Tesco launched its new discount store Jack’s in September last year to rival Aldi and Lidl.

Last year, Morrisons announced that it would axe 1,500 staff in a huge shake up for the chain.

A proposed £12billion merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda was blocked earlier this year over fears it was bad news for consumers.