Discount grocer Aldi is set to cut up to 350 roles at its UK headquarters in Birmingham as cost pressures bite.
The changes will affect some buying department positions, including non-food, finance and some back-office functions, according to reports.
Aldi joins Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s in cutting jobs in the wake of October’s budget, with piled cost pressures on retailers with higher taxes on staff wages.
Earlier this month, a group of retailers including Tesco and M&S united to warn the Treasury that the retail sector faces a “perfect storm” of costs.
The Retail Jobs Alliance (RJA) said a higher national insurance bill, plus a new recycling tax and higher business rates, will see 300,000 jobs disappear by 2030.
Last month, Sainsbury’s announced that it would axe 3,000 jobs and close all in-store cafes, while Tesco cut 400 roles in an attempt to “simplify” the business.
Morrisons also launched a major round of job cuts, with plans to axe more than 200 roles from its retail people team.
The move formed part of a wider drive to significantly cut costs and came after chief executive Rami Baitiéh described the “avalanche of costs” businesses face.
Retail job vacancies have almost halved in the last year, and the retail sector lost some 225,000 jobs between 2019 and 2025, according to the ONS.
Cost pressures have encouraged the move to automation, with the growing power and cheaper relative cost of tech making it an ever-more commercially viable option.
No customer-facing roles, however, are affected in Aldi’s restructure.
An Aldi spokesperson told the Grocery Gazette: “To support our continued growth and to offer the best experience to our customers, we are consulting over proposals to restructure some head office teams.”
“No customer-facing roles are affected, and no final decisions will be made until the consultation process is complete.
“We are committed to supporting our colleagues throughout this process. Wherever possible, we will seek to redeploy affected colleagues within the business.”