The new boss of Tesco is set to slash thousands more jobs in a bid to turn around the fortunes of the U.K.'s largest supermarket chain.
Dave Lewis, new chief executive, has been in charge for a little over four months, and is expected to swing the ax once again with more job losses. The Sunday Telegraph reported that jobs will be cut from Tesco's head offices and 43 stores that are set to close as part of the supermarket's cost-cutting plan.
There will also be the removal of an entire layer of management from stores, the report added. Those in the middle managements roles affected – who are between the store manager and shop assistants - will be offered alternative positions, according to the U.K. newspaper. The Sunday Telegraph stated that total losses could reach 10,000, but the Financial Times and The Guardian had more conservative layoff estimates.
The grocer, which has over 3,300 stores in the U.K., currently employs 310,000 people in the country and is its largest private sector employer. Tesco declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
The travails of Tesco, the biggest of the four main U.K. supermarkets, have been well-documented. Lewis - who earned the nickname "Drastic Dave" after similar restructuring at Unilever in 2007 - has already had to deal with a high-profile accounting scandal and a series of profit warnings.
Meanwhile, rival Sainsbury's previously announced that it was cutting around 1,000 prices in an effort to maintain its market share in the competitive supermarket space. Asda, which is owned by Wal-Mart, has undertaken similar price cuts, confirming that widespread discounting has sparked a price war in the deeply competitive sector.
There are a number of issues plaguing the U.K. retail landscape, including long-term changes in consumer trends and competition from discounters like Germany's Aldi and Lidl. The chains now account for more than 10 percent of sales in the U.K. supermarket space, Nielsen data published last week revealed.