Tesco bakery plan could impact on Caithness
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STAFF in Caithness could be affected by a Tesco plan to cut 1800 jobs at its bakeries in stores throughout the UK. The supermarket giant is not divulging details of the locations and says changes will only take effect later in the year.
A spokeswoman for the company said large stores with bakeries will be impacted but could not say if that included Wick and Thurso. "We can't say at the moment but they could be affected," she said.
The spokeswoman confirmed the changes will take place from May and involve just over 1800 employees.
The retailer will convert 58 of its bakeries to finish pre-baked products on site. Bakeries at 257 sites will remain unchanged, with a further 201 continuing to offer some products which are produced there.
According to Tesco, the move is being made as sales of bagels, wraps and flatbreads increase and the demand for traditional loaves drops. It says it has to "adapt to changing customer demand".
The plan will mean 1816 staff will be "at risk of redundancy", although the company points out that alternative roles could be provided from the "many thousands of vacancies we will have available across our store networks between now and May".
Jason Tarry, UK and Ireland chief executive, said: "We need to adapt to changing customer demand and tastes for bakery products so that we continue to offer customers a market-leading bakery range in store. We know this will be very difficult for colleagues who are impacted, and our priority is to support them through this process. We hope that many will choose to stay with us in alternative roles."
The main union representing Tesco staff, Usdaw, described the reports of job cuts as "devastating" for staff and said many of those at risk are skilled workers.
Tesco is the UK's biggest grocery chain and employs around 450,000 people worldwide.
