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Asda: Hundreds of jobs lost at supermarket offices

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The Walmart-owned supermarket has its headquarters in Leeds city centre

Asda is to axe hundreds of jobs at its West Yorkshire head office and a further site in the East Midlands as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

About 300 jobs are to go at Asda House in Leeds and George House in Leicester the chain said, with job descriptions to a further 800 roles changed.

The grocery giant said its home offices needed to "adapt how they operate to support our stores".

Affected staff were informed about the cuts on Wednesday afternoon.

More on this story and others in Yorkshire

It is understood the majority of staff being let go are working at its Leeds headquarters on Great Wilson Street.

Reuters Asda workerReuters
The chain is the third-largest UK supermarket behind Tesco and Sainsbury's

A spokesperson for Asda said: "In recent years, the competitive landscape in retail has changed significantly and Asda has been no different.

"The changes are in response to the ever-changing sector in which we're working and the need to adapt to create an agile business which is fit for the future."

Figures for 2016 released in September showed like-for-like sales were down 5.7% compared with the previous year.

The supermarket's fortunes turned in 2017, after reporting its first quarterly like-for-like sales growth for three years.

The chain is the third-largest UK supermarket behind Tesco and Sainsbury's according to market researcher Kantar Worldpanel, but has been hurt by the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.