UK's Asda to cut 300 jobs at Leeds, Leicester offices

Asda, the British supermarket arm of Wal-Mart, is to cut 300 jobs at its offices in Leeds, northern England, and Leicester, central England, seeking to cut costs to stay competitive, it said on Wednesday.

The firm said it was adapting how its offices operated to support its store estate.

“These changes impact around 1,100 roles... and sadly result in around 300 colleagues leaving us,” Asda said.

Last month Asda reported its first underlying quarterly sales growth in three years and said its back-to-basics turnaround under a new management team was working.

In late July, Asda was rumoured to be considering a £4.4 billion takeover of B&M European Value Retail, the discount retailer run by the billionaire Arora brothers. At the time of the news, Asda played down the media reports and further declined to comment. No developments have been made or announced since the news broke several weeks ago.

Additional reporting by Benjamin Fitzgerald.