Co-op to cut 600 jobs

HUNDREDS of head office jobs are to go at the Co-operative Group after it announced plans to save £50m a year. The company said it is cutting the jobs to remove duplication and make the business more efficient.

The Co-op said the staff would go during the next two years at its headquarters in Manchester. It described the cuts as 'deeply regrettable', but said they were essential to cut back on inefficiencies.

Last year, the Co-op said its sales fell to £7.8bn from £8.1bn, while profits dropped to £243.7m from £327.3m the year before.

Chief executive Martin Beaumont said the group had evolved into a conglomerate of individual businesses over the years, each with their own support structures and overhead costs.That had sometimes resulted in a duplication of management effort, leading to inefficiency, higher costs and missed opportunities, he said.

'While we have made some progress in working more closely as a group, our recent results clearly show we now need to move much faster,' he said.

The Co-op told staff the news today and said it would begin consultations with shopworkers' union Usdaw and the National Association of Co-operative Officials (NACO) next week.

Usdaw national officer Sharon Ainsworth said the news had come as a 'massive shock' to the union's members at the Co-op.

'We'll be closely examining the business case for these redundancies, which affect about a fifth of the total workforce, to make sure this level of job cuts is really necessary,' she said, adding: 'There's no doubt that the Co-op group faces serious difficulties, but we would question whether getting rid of so many hard-working and experienced staff is the best way forward.'