Major UK supermarket to cut hundreds of jobs in AI push

‘People left the meetings in tears’

The supermarket chain Morrisons notified staff of the restructure in meetings on Monday, April 13.

The restructure was confirmed in a statement to The Sun by a spokesperson for the retailer.

“During 2025, Morrisons commenced a long-term programme to re-engineer certain of its business functions, to concentrate on the core activities that our customers value, streamline processes and structures, automate a number of manual tasks and capitalise on the potential of data and AI to improve performance,” the rep said.

“This multi-year programme will ensure our central functions are better placed to serve our stores and strengthen our ability to deliver for customers in the current very challenging market conditions.”

“As we evolve and adapt, we are proposing to make some changes to a number of areas within our central structure.”

“This will involve making some tough but necessary decisions, which will impact on colleagues in our head office, where we are proposing to place a number of roles at risk of redundancy”, the statement continued.

“We understand this will be difficult news for these colleagues and will be offering them our full support, including helping them to find alternative roles elsewhere in the business wherever we can. A consultation process with colleagues has now commenced.”

As per The Sun, it has been told that marketing, commercial and technical teams are among those at risk of losing their jobs at the supermarket’s Bradford HQ.

Prior to being individually notified by email, at-risk staff were alerted in staggered face-to-face meetings on Monday afternoon, it has been revealed.

According to an insider, the entire office was in panic as bosses separated teams into different rooms with no explanation.

As reasons for the cuts, managers cited increases in insurance, cost-of-living, and fuel prices due to the Middle East conflict.

“People left the meetings in tears and lots went home afterwards”, The Sun was told by a long-serving member of staff.

“Everyone was left shaken up. It’s all come out of nowhere and affects people of all pay scales – whether they’ve been here ages or just joined.”

The Sun saw an email addressed to employees which read: “During this consultation we will consider all alternatives to prevent compulsory redundancies and to minimise the number of colleagues affected.”

Last month, Morrisons effectively cut its convenience buying team, making this recent move the second round of job cuts at the retailer in a matter of weeks.

Recently, the supermarket chain announced it would be closing 103 daily stores, cafés, florists, and pharmacies in a massive restructuring effort.

In a survey conducted by consumer watchdog Which?, Morrisons was joint-last for in-store shopping, as it received a score of 68% by customers.