Morrisons employees have been left “in tears” following the supermarket chain’s announcement of plans to cut more than 200 head office positions as part of a wider cost-cutting and restructuring initiative.
The retailer indicated that around 8% of positions at its Hilmore House headquarters are at risk, with employees from various departments called into meetings on Monday to begin consultations.
The proposed redundancies are expected to affect teams in commercial, marketing, HR, supply chain, and technical departments and are part of a broader effort to streamline operations and reduce costs.
A Morrisons spokesperson said: “During 2025 Morrisons commenced a long-term programme to re-engineer certain business functions, to concentrate on the core activities that our customers value, streamline processes and structures, automate a number of manual tasks and capitalise on the potential of data and AI to improve performance.
“As we evolve and adapt, we are proposing to make some changes to a number of areas within our central structure. This will involve making some tough but necessary decisions which will impact on colleagues in our head office, where we are proposing to place a number of roles at risk of redundancy.”
These cuts come amid a push to increase the use of artificial intelligence and automation within the company, aiming to enhance efficiency in areas such as forecasting, stock management, and category planning. This announcement follows an earlier statement regarding around 100 additional roles being under review, bringing the total number of affected positions to over 300 in recent weeks.
Chief Executive Rami Baitiéh is under pressure to strengthen the company’s financial position, as Morrisons carries a reported £3.1 billion debt burden and faces ongoing cost challenges in the retail sector.
The company noted that this restructuring aims to better align central functions to support store operations and customer service in a “very challenging” trading environment.
However, the announcement has raised concerns among staff, with reports of emotional reactions during initial meetings in which workers were informed that their positions could be at risk. Morrisons has stated that it will support affected employees throughout the consultation process and will attempt to redeploy staff where possible, although uncertainty remains as the review progresses.
Leave a Comment