Sainsbury’s has finally confirmed the exact date it will be closing its in-store cafes as the British supermarket giant continues to go through a re-structuring.
The announcement of the closure of 61 of its store’s cafes come as part of a major overhaul which will also see 3,000 jobs axed.
A spokesperson for the supermarket revealed that the cafes would close on Friday April 11.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of the supermarket group, said the company was making the cuts in an attempt to slash spending by a £1billion a year in the face of a ‘particularly challenging cost environment’.
This is despite the supermarket chain recently announcing its ‘biggest ever’ Christmas trading period and predicting profits would likely be between £1.01 billion and £1.06 billion for the whole of 2025.
The job losses mean the current 148,000-strong workforce by will be reduced by 2 per cent and all of the 61 remaining cafes will be closed.
The supermarket chain had previously said the decision was a result of reduced footfall in the cafes.
Mr Roberts claimed Sainsbury’s shoppers did not use their cafes regularly anymore, whereas in-store food halls and concessions run by their ‘specialist partners’ had grown in popularity.
Sainsbury’s has confirmed it will be closing 61 of its in-store cafes on Friday April 11 as part of a major overhaul which will also see 3,000 jobs axed
As part of the shake up, the retailer will also close its remaining patisserie, hot food and pizza counters in-store and shift the most popular items from there into regular shopping aisles.
The supermarket boss added: ‘As we accelerate into year two and beyond of our strategy, we are facing into a particularly challenging cost environment which means we have had to make tough choices about where we can afford to invest and where we need to do things differently to make our business more efficient and effective.
‘The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum but have also meant some difficult choices impacting our dedicated colleagues in a number of parts of our business.’
But the cafe spaces may not disappear entirely with plans for the eateries to be replaced by franchises, such as the Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
The cuts come after Sainsbury’s warned in 2024 that they were worried about the effects of the Labour budget.
Many companies warned they could be forced to cut thousands of jobs and raise prices due to the increase in employer national insurance contributions by £25bn from April and a 6.7 per cent rise in the national minimum wage.
In late 2024, Sainsbury’s bosses said the tax increases from the October Budget would hit it with an extra £140 million in costs, warning that the changes would also lead to higher inflation.
The job losses mean the current 148,000-strong workforce by will be reduced by 2 per cent and all of the remaining cafes will be closed
Simon Roberts, chief executive, said the company was making the cuts as it attempts to slash spending by a £1billion a year in the face of a ‘particularly challenging cost environment’
Their revamp will see about 20 per cent of their senior management roles axed as part of plans to simplify the head office and management teams.
The company also hoped to ‘explore redeployment opportunities where this is possible’ for people affected.
The latest closures come nearly three years after Sainsbury’s closed 200 in-store cafes and 34 hot food counters as part of a shake-up that put 2,000 jobs at risk.
And last year, it announced it was cutting about 1,500 roles, mostly from a contact centre in Cheshire.
