John Lewis is to axe 325 department managers across its stores, as the retailers looks to focus more of its sales growth online.
The cuts are part of the firm’s ‘Retail Revolution’ plan with online sales outpacing physical stores leading the partnership to focus on the web.
“As part of our plans for future growth, we are proposing to streamline management structures in some of our established shops,” said John Lewis.
“What we are doing is anticipating how the retail market is changing and ensuring our shop model is competitive for the long term. Otherwise, we will end up in a position that some of our competitors are reflecting.”
The job cuts will take place across 28 of its 40 stores, marking the biggest layoffs at the firm since 2009, when 700 in-store call centre workers were made redundant.
The department managers have been given four weeks to put forward their views before a 90-day constitution in March.
