Aldi’s UK business is cutting hundreds of head office roles as part of a global effort to trim costs at the budget grocer.
The retailer is consulting with its technology team on the loss of up to ۱۵۰ roles after ۱۰۳ redundancies in its finance and administration team earlier this year and almost ۲۰ more redundancies among buying directors.
One affected worker described the cuts as “shortsighted” and said they showed that “upper management [are] woefully out of touch with the reality”.
Jobs in stores have not been affected, although Aldi said it had reduced the number of regional managers slightly, affecting a handful of high-paying roles.
The German-owned group is reducing the number of people in local country operations as it centralises more work.
Aldi is outsourcing finance, procurement and administration roles to India, among other countries, as part of a deal with Genpact, a company that helps businesses develop the use of AI technology.
Sources said consultation was set to begin on redundancies in payroll in the coming months. The company has also recently reduced the number of cleaning hours for the agency workers at its head office in Atherstone, Warwickshire.
A spokesperson for Aldi said: “At Aldi, our promise to customers is that we will always offer great quality products at unbeatable prices. Across our international business, we continuously review all aspects of our operations to ensure we operate simply, efficiently and use our global scale to deliver on that promise.
“We are therefore making some adjustments to the way parts of our UK business are structured. Any changes are being introduced gradually and following a consultation period. We recognise that this is difficult for those involved, so we are giving colleagues as much notice as possible, with full support available to everyone affected.”
The company said it had invested £۳۰۰m in lowering prices on ۹۰۰ products in the UK this year.
The cuts in the UK come as Aldi struggles to keep up the pace of growth. UK sales at the chain rose only ۰.۴% in the ۱۲ weeks to ۱ November, according to the latest industry data from Worldpanel by Numerator, with Aldi’s market share falling back by ۰.۱ percentage point year on year.
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The fall came as the average unit price at Aldi fell by ۰.۱%, making Aldi the only retailer reducing overall prices during the period.
The retailer has faced tougher competition from the traditional supermarkets, several of which now match it on price on key items alongside their much wider range of other products.
Morrisons cut hundreds of head office roles this spring shortly after Sainsbury’s eliminated ۳۰۰ head office jobs as it restructured its technology team and Argos delivery network, and Tesco laid off a similar number of people as it changed the way it operated bakeries. This summer, Asda said up to ۱,۰۰۰ jobs were at risk as it introduced more automation into its logistics operation.
