Bradford-based supermarket giants Morrisons has announced a raft of cuts which could see more than 350 people lose their jobs.
A total of 52 cafés, all 18 market kitchens, 17 convenience stores, 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters and four pharmacies all face closure at stores across the country.
Although the significant majority of colleagues affected by these changes are expected to be deployed in suitable roles elsewhere in Morrisons, there will be a total of around 365 colleagues at risk of redundancy.
Cafes at stores in Horsforth, Swinnow Lane and Thornbury all face closure. The Market Kitchen at Kirkstall also faces closure.
Rami Baitiéh, Chief Executive of Morrisons, said: “The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.
“Morrisons Cafés are rightly famous for their great quality well-priced food, their place in the local community and their appealing mix of traditional favourites alongside exciting new dishes.
“In most locations the Morrisons Café has a bright future, but a minority have specific local challenges and in those locations, regrettably, closure and re-allocation of the space is the only sensible option.
“Market Street is a beacon of differentiation for Morrisons and we remain committed to it.
“But as we modernise we are making some necessary changes to the areas of the model which are simply uneconomic.
“In some stores where we are closing counters or cafés, we plan to work with third parties to provide a relevant specialist offer.”
“Although these changes are relatively small in the context of the overall scale of the Morrisons business, we do not take lightly the disruption and uncertainty they will cause to some of our colleagues.
“We will of course take particular care to look after all of them well through the coming changes.”
Yankee Doodle asset strippers at the old slash and burn yet again. Next thing you’ll be reporting how the whole business has gone belly up.
They don’t give a crap about hard working decent people who thought they had a safe job only to be cast aside and they call it progress . Total utter codswallop . Stripping the company of all its core value and trying to make a fast Buck . They’ll run this company into the ground .