5,000 Asda staff '˜redeployed' amid talk of redundancies

Asda has pinpointed a number of shop floor services such as photo processing and its George clothing desks that are no longer as popular as they were.

Pharmacy opening hours will also be changed to meet customer demand and services such as make your own pizza may be removed from smaller stores where people prefer to buy pre-packed pizza. In addition Asda is consulting with staff about the closure of its store canteens.

Asda said it intends to offer the 5,000 staff new roles within the business if their position is affected.

The firm denied claims that 1,000 staff could be made redundant, insisting that it will try to redeploy as many people as possible.

A spokeswoman said: “If these proposals go ahead our aim is to redeploy colleagues rather than make them redundant.”

In a separate move 600 staff in the Leeds head office and the George head office in Leicester may be redeployed. Asda said all 600 will be offered new roles.

This follows the news earlier this week that around 200 jobs are to be cut at Asda House following what many analysts believe was a poor Christmas for the supermarket chain.

Asda confirmed that the number of jobs going would be in the “low hundreds”. It employs 3,000 staff at its head office.

The company is speaking to colleagues about who will be affected.

Analysts believe Asda will announce a 3.0 to 3.5 per cent fall in ​like-for-like sales over Christmas, trailing its main rivals, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Asda recently announced another £500m investment in price cuts as it attempts to stem the tide of customers to the discounters, Aldi and Lidl, which are on average 10 per cent cheaper than the big four.