Tesco to 'axe 10,000 jobs' in drive to recover from declining shares

Most of the jobs are to go from the head office, according to reports

Tesco's profits-warning had sent its share price crashing (Getty Images)

Britain’s supermarket giant Tesco could be axing thousands of jobs in an attempt to claw back funds after a slide in sales and profits.

Up to 6,000 jobs are said to go from the company’s head office and up to 4,000 from stores by making team leaders or those in supervisory roles redundant, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

However, a spokesman for Tesco said – when contacted by The Independent – that the company has yet to quantify how many or which jobs will be culled in order to cut spending by 30 per cent.

Tesco had announced plans for “restructuring of central overheads, simplification of store management structures and increased working-hour flexibility” in the hope of saving £250 million per year at a “one-off cost of £300 million.”

Some 43 Tesco branches nationwide have been ear-marked for closure as part of the money-saving drive, the spokesman confirmed, after the company was found to have overestimated profits by £263 million last year.

David Lewis – dubbed “Drastic Dave” – was then appointed CEO after 27 years at Unilever to replace Philip Clarke and to turn around the biggest supermarket chain in the UK by streamlining the company’s operations.

Tesco’s chief executive Dave Lewis is reforming the struggling retailer (Reuters)

A week before Christmas, shares were at their lowest in the past year at 164.80.

The supermarket has since experienced a struggle to boost the slow and incremental incline in stock market performance.