(Alliance News) - Tesco PLC on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its stores, impacting around 2,100 jobs.

The supermarket chain will close its remaining counters and hot delis, which offer meat, fish and deli products, from February 26. The space will be "repurposed to better reflect our customers' needs".

"Where we can work with a third party to offer a counter experience in-store, we will continue to do so," the company added.

Further, it announced about 1,800 new shift leader roles.

"With the introduction of these new shift leader roles and realignment of management roles, we have taken the difficult decision to reduce the number of lead and team managers in our large stores, impacting around 1,750 colleagues," the company said.

In addition to that, Tesco announced smaller localised changes, including the closure of eight pharmacies, impacting a further 350 colleagues.

It noted that all employees affected by the counter and hot deli closures are offered alternative roles in store. Tesco added that it will support colleagues impacted by the changes, offering them to move into shift leader roles with financial support.

"Over the last couple of years, we have started rolling out a new management structure in approximately 350 of our smaller Superstores, which better reflects the needs of our stores. We have now taken the decision to extend this structure across all our larger Superstores and Extra stores," the supermarket chain said.

Tesco UK & ROI Chief Executive Officer Jason Tarry said: "These are difficult decisions to make, but they are necessary to ensure we remain focused on delivering value for our customers wherever we can, as well as ensuring our store offer reflects what our customers value the most. Our priority is to support those colleagues impacted and help find alternative roles within our business from the vacancies and newly created roles we have available."

Meanwhile, Sky News on Tuesday reported that Tesco is in advanced talks to buy Paperchase, two weeks after the stationery chain said it was in talks with potential buyers.

Sky said that Tesco does not seem to show interest in Paperchase's stores, which could lead to a workforce loss in Paperchase employees.

https://news.sky.com/story/tesco-eyes-surprise-bid-to-wrap-up-deal-for-paperchase-brand-12799670

At the time of Paperchase's financial collapse in January 2021, it employed around 1,300 people and traded from more than 125 sites in the UK.

Tesco shares were 0.6% lower at 246.10 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter

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