Full list of Sainsbury’s cafe closures after supermarket confirms 3,000 job cuts

Sainsbury’s is set to cut more than 3,000 jobs amid a major overhaul of its stores.

The cuts mean the supermarket giant is slashing its workforce – consisting of 148,000 people – by 2% in an effort to ‘boost Sainsbury’s and Argos performance’, despite boasting its ‘biggest ever trading period’.

Around 20% of senior management roles will be cut, the company, which expects profits for the full year to be between £1.01 billion and £1.06 billion, said in a press release.

Chief executive Simon Roberts said: ‘We’ll be doing everything we can to support anyone impacted by today’s announcements.’

The company will ‘explore redeployment opportunities where this is possible’, it said, while a 5% pay increase for workers in a ‘particularly tough cost inflation environment’ was confirmed earlier this month.

Sainsbury’s also announced that its remaining 61 Sainsbury’s Cafes will be shut subject to consultation.

The chain said shoppers do not regularly use the cafes, but that in-store food halls had increased in popularity. Remaining hot food, pizza and patisserie counters will also be scrapped with popular items made available in the food aisles.

Mr Roberts said: ‘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.’

Why is Sainsbury’s making cuts?

Despite its huge expected profits, the supermarket is still trying to cut costs by around £1 billion a year.

In 2024, it cut around 1,500 roles, which came mostly from a contact centre in Cheshire.

Late last year, the British high street staple said that tax increases in chancellor Rachel Reeves’ October budget would cause an additional £140 million in costs and lead to higher inflation.

Responding to Sainsbury’s announcement today, a Downing Street spokesperson said: ‘As we said at the Budget, difficult decisions were needed to restore economic stability, and put the public finances back on to a stable footing.’

In comments shared with Metro, shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith said: ‘Labour need to urgently undo their ‘jobs tax’.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.