Sainsbury’s is cutting 3,000 jobs in response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget – with an additional one-fifth of senior management positions also taking the axe.
This is a major – real – setback to Labour’s economic plans. Instead of growth, this is tangible evidence of contraction.
The 3,000 staff job losses are apparently the result of the supermarket chain closing its remaining 61 cafes and shutting down its patisserie, pizza and hot food counters. It seems most shoppers do not use the cafes regularly.
The 20 per cent of senior managers who’ll also be heading for the dole queues will be doing so because of a “particularly challenging cost environment”, whatever that jargon means.
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It is true that the business is partway through a plan to save £1 billion over the next few years, but the redundancies are also believed to be a response to Reeves’s announcement of increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions, that the firm says will cost it £140 million per year from April.
Ah, but are they really necessary?
Sainsbury’s has reported strong Christmas trading and said it expects annual profits – for the year to April 2025 – to be more than £1 billion.
So what I’d like to see at the end of the next financial year is two statements from Sainsbury’s – one showing the amount of profit it makes for the year to April 2026, and another showing how much profit (or loss) it would have made if it had not implemented the restructuring and job losses that it has announced.
We never get to see such estimates (they would have to be, as they could only use the income the firm actually takes for a year in the calculations, rather than what might have been taken if all the staff had been retained, performing their jobs). I think that lets businesses off the hook.
The Labour government itself seems to be in denial. Apparently a spokesman has said Reeves took the decisions needed to “restore economic stability” and “put the public finances back on to a stable footing”.
But the UK’s metaphorical economic boat has been rocking as though it had Moby Dick under it, with bad faith actors doing their best to undermine the new government, and the public finances have taken a big hit because of a manufactured rise in interest rates.
This could be seen as another attempt to de-stabilise Labour’s plans; with fewer employees, companies pay lower NI contributions than would otherwise have been the case.
It all seems very spiteful to This Writer – and unpatriotic, if you think about it. I wonder whether Sainsbury’s supported the Tories when their slogan was, “We’re all in this together”?
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Sainsbury’s is cutting 3,000 jobs in response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget
Sainsbury’s is cutting 3,000 jobs in response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget – with an additional one-fifth of senior management positions also taking the axe.
This is a major – real – setback to Labour’s economic plans. Instead of growth, this is tangible evidence of contraction.
The 3,000 staff job losses are apparently the result of the supermarket chain closing its remaining 61 cafes and shutting down its patisserie, pizza and hot food counters. It seems most shoppers do not use the cafes regularly.
The 20 per cent of senior managers who’ll also be heading for the dole queues will be doing so because of a “particularly challenging cost environment”, whatever that jargon means.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
It is true that the business is partway through a plan to save £1 billion over the next few years, but the redundancies are also believed to be a response to Reeves’s announcement of increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions, that the firm says will cost it £140 million per year from April.
Ah, but are they really necessary?
Sainsbury’s has reported strong Christmas trading and said it expects annual profits – for the year to April 2025 – to be more than £1 billion.
So what I’d like to see at the end of the next financial year is two statements from Sainsbury’s – one showing the amount of profit it makes for the year to April 2026, and another showing how much profit (or loss) it would have made if it had not implemented the restructuring and job losses that it has announced.
We never get to see such estimates (they would have to be, as they could only use the income the firm actually takes for a year in the calculations, rather than what might have been taken if all the staff had been retained, performing their jobs). I think that lets businesses off the hook.
The Labour government itself seems to be in denial. Apparently a spokesman has said Reeves took the decisions needed to “restore economic stability” and “put the public finances back on to a stable footing”.
But the UK’s metaphorical economic boat has been rocking as though it had Moby Dick under it, with bad faith actors doing their best to undermine the new government, and the public finances have taken a big hit because of a manufactured rise in interest rates.
This could be seen as another attempt to de-stabilise Labour’s plans; with fewer employees, companies pay lower NI contributions than would otherwise have been the case.
It all seems very spiteful to This Writer – and unpatriotic, if you think about it. I wonder whether Sainsbury’s supported the Tories when their slogan was, “We’re all in this together”?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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