John Lewis Partnership, the owner of John Lewis and Waitrose, is set to cut 1000 in-store management roles.

The retailer said the move comes as part of efforts to save £300 million by 2022 by streamlining its store management.

John Lewis said the proposals will allow it to “reinvest in what matters most” to its customers by reducing the number of layers between in-store workers and senior leaders.

The news comes after John Lewis recorded a pre-tax loss of £517 million in 2020, compared to a pre-tax profit of £146 million in 2019, which lead to it not paying its annual staff bonus for the first time in 67 years.

The retailer said that the loss was the result of substantial exceptional costs of £648 million triggered by the shift to online, alongside restructuring and redundancy costs from store closures and changes to its head office.

John Lewis has announced 3,000 job losses in just over a year and closed eight stores in March.

The company said it will try to find new jobs for those impacted by the move and will implement a voluntary redundancy policy.

There will be an average reduction of 2.7 roles per shop, across the retailer’s 331 Waitrose supermarkets and 34 John Lewis stores, if the proposals are confirmed.

The news comes despite a slight rise in the number of retail jobs in the UK, which increased by 1,000 in the first quarter year-on-year according to the latest ONS job figures.

Waitrose is not the only supermarket looking to cut costs; Co-op announced it is changing its management structure across 300 stores in March, which will reportedly impact around 2000 employees.

“We have announced to our staff our intention to simplify our management structures in Waitrose and John Lewis stores, which will allow us to reinvest in what matters most to our customers,” said a John Lewis spokesperson.

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