Sainsbury’s has announced plans to close all its remaining in-store cafes as part of a wider shake-up resulting in more than 3,000 job losses.

The proposals also include closing all remaining hot food, pizza and patisserie counters in its supermarkets nationwide. The products will instead be moved to aisles. The chain claimed this would create space to offer “more fresh food ranges in more stores”.

As part of the shake-up., its remaining 61 Sainsbury’s Cafés. Sainsbury’s claimed that most shoppers didn’t use them regularly and that coffee shops run by outside firms – including Starbucks – in its stores were proving more popular.

It comes after Sainsbury’s announced in March 2022 it was closing 200 of its in-store cafes, putting around 2,000 workers at risk of redundancy. At the time, it also announced plans to end its hot food range in 34 stores and ‘simplify’ its bakery counters in 54 stores. Sainsbury’s warned at the time that its remaining cafes – 67 back then – could also be replaced.

Sainsbury’s has also been closing a large number of Argos standalone stores and, in many cases, moving them into its main food branches instead. Only last November it announced another nine Argos closures.

As well as in-store, Sainsbury’s also announced a head office reorganisation., with a number of appointments at senior levels.

The proposals are expected to result in more than 3,000 job losses across Sainsbury’s as a whole. The retailer said it was talking to staff affected about what the changes mean for them and looking at ways some might be redeployed in the business. It is also providing a package to those affected which, it insists, exceeds statutory requirements while offering opportunities to receive tailored guidance for their future career options.

The closing of hot food counters follows a previous clear-out of others in store. In 2020, Sainsbury’s announced it was permanently shutting its in-store meat, fish and deli counters due to “reduced consumer demand”.

Sainsbury’s said it was ramping-up the second year of its three-year Next Level plans for the business.. This includes proposals which, over the next few months, will bring more of what it calls its core food ranges to more customers, while “simplifying central divisions and management structures. ”

Head office departments will be reorganised to focus on either the main Sainsbury’s arm or its Argos division. Doing so will, it said, result in “fewer, bigger roles”, with an estimated one in five senior managers getting the chop.

The cull comes despite Sainsbury’s raking in more than £700million in profit last year.

Paul Travers, national officer for food at the Unite union, said: “Once again, the lowest paid workers are paying the price for corporate greed. Sainsburys is a hugely profitable company yet they are proposing thousands of redundancies of store workers and deskilling qualified bakers by removing on-site bakeries. At the same time, well-paid managers are being protected from any job losses.

“This is a blatant example of profiteering on the backs of workers and then sticking the knife in. Sainsburys should be ashamed of themselves for taking this path. Unite will be fighting for our members’ jobs during any consultation process and helping them through this difficult time.”

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.”

The Sainsbury’s Cafés proposed to closure are:

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