Sainsbury's to axe 800 jobs as part of restructuring

LONDON (ShareCast) - J Sainsbury on Thursday revealed plans to slash 800 jobs as part of a restructuring amid the price war between the UK's biggest supermarkets.

The proposals include the loss of department and deputy manager positions which the grocer said to would achieve about £500m of cost savings over the next three years.

"Reducing the number of department manager roles will give colleagues who serve customers on tills and restock the shelves the opportunity to extend their hours or take additional shifts," the group said in a statement.

"This means more customer-facing colleagues will be on hand to offer service, with the right leadership and structures in place." The company is also looking into replacing night shifts with early morning and evening shifts at more than 100 of its stores to improve availability and service for customers. Changes were made in 33 stores last year.

It comes just months after Sainsbury's announced plans to cut 500 jobs at its Manchester, Coventry and Holborn offices.

The UK's big four supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) , Asda and Morrison, have been lowering prices of goods to regain market share from popular smaller discounters including Aldi and Lidl.

Last week, Morrison's announced it was cutting 720 head office jobs in order to recruit 5,000 shop floor staff.