A number of fresh fish counters to close in Tesco stores in a move by the supermarket giant to cut costs.
Tesco has confirmed that up to 9,000 staff jobs are at risk as it closes fresh food counters in its stores and makes cuts at its head office.
The retailer, which has more than 300,000 UK employees and more than 3,400 stores, said it hoped to redeploy up to half of the 9,000 directly employed Tesco staff into other customer service roles.
Tesco says shoppers were using fresh food counters less frequently. Fish, meat and other fresh food counters will remain trading in 700 more stores, some with reduced hours.
The supermarket giant said it is also changing how it manages its stock with less work available for backroom staff.
Jason Tarry, CEO of Tesco UK and ROI said: “In our four years of turnaround we’ve made good progress, but the market is challenging and we need to continually adapt to remain competitive and respond to how customers want to shop.
“We’re making changes to our UK stores and head office to simplify what we do and how we do it, so we’re better able to meet the needs of our customers.
“This will impact some of our colleagues and our commitment is to minimise this as much as possible and support our colleagues throughout.”
It is uncertain how the closure will affect seafood suppliers, as much of the slack taken by the fish counter closures will be taken up by pre-packed fresh fish and shellfish. The closures may also help high street fishmongers, ensuring they have a real point of difference when it comes to selling fish, based on customer service and consumer knowledge.