• Supermarket transformation continues to create space for more fresh food ranges in more stores
• Central divisions and management structures reorganised to boost Sainsbury’s and Argos performance
• Proposals expected to reduce headcount by over 3,000 roles, including 20 per cent reduction of senior management roles

23 January 2025 – Sainsbury’s has today shared plans to accelerate into the second year of its three-year Next Level strategy. This includes proposals which over the next few months will bring more of the retailer’s core food ranges to more supermarket customers, while simplifying central divisions and management structures.

As Sainsbury’s approaches the end of the first year of its Next Level strategy, more customers are choosing the retailer for their big shop and the business is seeing strong momentum, with seven consecutive quarters of volume growth, its best-ever value position and record customer satisfaction scores at Christmas.

As part of the company’s plan to become First Choice for Food, Sainsbury’s has shared plans to create space to offer more of its fresh food ranges in more stores. This will involve proposals to close remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters while making their most popular items available in the aisles. The retailer’s roll-out of updated bakery recipes to ensure consistent quality and value will be completed by the summer, along with new self-serve bread slicing.

In a further move to simplify the business, the retailer has made the difficult decision to close its remaining 61 Sainsbury’s Cafés, subject to consultation. The majority of Sainsbury’s most loyal shoppers do not use the Cafés regularly and Cafés and food halls run by specialist partners are becoming more and more popular.

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. Rhian Bartlett will become Chief Commercial Officer, Sainsbury’s and Graham Biggart will be MD Argos and Chief Strategy and Supply Officer. Patrick Dunne, Director of Property and Procurement will also join the Operating Board as Chief Property and Procurement Officer and MD for SmartCharge.

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 per cent reduction in senior management roles over the next few months.

The proposals it has shared with colleagues today are expected to result in the overall reduction of over 3,000 roles from across the business. Sainsbury's is talking to the colleagues affected about what the changes mean for them and explore redeployment opportunities where this is possible. This is in addition to providing a support package to those affected which exceeds statutory requirements while offering opportunities to receive tailored guidance for their future career options.

Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s Chief Executive, said: “We launched our Next Level Strategy almost a year ago and are totally focused on making good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day. As a result, we’re seeing real momentum across our business, with a best-ever value position, leading quality and increasing market share. As we accelerate into year two and beyond of our strategy, 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.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Sainsbury’s currently employs 148,000 colleagues.

Sainsbury’s Cafés closures are proposed at the following locations:

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About Sainsbury’s

Offering delicious great quality food at competitive prices has been at the heart of what we do since John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury opened our first store in 1869. Today, inspiring and delighting our customers with tasty food remains our priority and our purpose is clear – we make good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day.

Our focus on great value food and convenient shopping, whether in-store or online is supported by our brands – Argos, Nectar, Tu Clothing, Habitat, Sainsbury’s Bank and Smart Charge.

Sainsbury’s has almost 600 supermarkets and over 800 convenience stores. Argos is a leading digital retailer and is the third most visited retail website in the UK, with over 70 per cent of its sales starting online. Argos is conveniently available for customers to collect from hundreds of Sainsbury’s stores. Digital and technology enables us to adapt as customers shop differently and our profitable, fast-growing online channels offer customers quick and convenient delivery and collection capability.