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23
Jan
Sainsbury’s reveals plans to close Harrogate café
The café at the Sainsbury’s superstore in Harrogate looks set to close.
Sainsbury’s said in a statement today it plans to close its remaining 61 cafés nationwide, including the Wetherby Road site, as part of a new three-year strategy.
The supermarket giant said the move was subject to consultation, but the majority of loyal Sainsbury’s shoppers "do not use the cafés regularly", and food halls and cafés run by partners were becoming more popular.
The move will “simplify the business”, Sainsbury’s added.
Today's statement also said the retailer hopes to create more in-store space for fresh food. To do so, Sainsbury’s will also scrap remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters, which will be replaced by the most popular items.
It added:
The business is also announcing updates to its central management structures to support faster decision making and drive performance at both Sainsbury's and Argos.
In a cost-saving bid, Sainsbury's also said its head office departments will be reorganised and senior management roles reduced:
As part of Sainsbury’s Save and invest to win programme to deliver £1 billion of operating cost savings, the retailer plans to update its central divisions and management structures.
This will see all head office departments reorganised to become dedicated to the different needs of the Sainsbury’s and Argos businesses, while creating fewer, bigger roles with clearer accountabilities.
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.
The changes are expected to result in more than 3,000 job losses from the 148,000-person workforce.
The Stray Ferret asked Sainsbury’s how many people will be affected by the move at the Harrogate store and when the café will close.
A spokesperson said:
We are supporting the colleagues affected in any way we can, including exploring redeployment opportunities and our stores continue to support the customers and communities they serve in a range of ways, including through fundraising, volunteering and donations to good causes.
The spokesperson did not reveal how many staff could be affected but said the Harrogate store café was likely to close in spring subject to consultation.
‘We are facing a challenging cost environment’
Simon Roberts, chief executive at Sainsbury's, said today:
We are facing into a particularly challenging cost environment which means we have had to make tough choices about where we can afford to invest and where we need to do things differently to make our business more efficient and effective.
The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum but have also meant some difficult choices impacting our dedicated colleagues in a number of parts of our business. We’ll be doing everything we can to support anyone impacted by today’s announcements.
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