Morrisons cut almost 5,000 jobs last year as the debt-laden supermarket sought to put a lid on soaring losses.
The retailer’s average monthly workforce fell by 5pc from 101,144 to 96,232 people in the 12 months to October last year, according to recently filed accounts.
The majority of the reduction was in its stores, where staff numbers dropped by more than 4,200, while food manufacturing and distribution jobs also fell.
The figures represent average staff numbers for the year. The fall came after Morrisons cut its newspaper delivery service, made changes to its management team and scaled back its bakery operations, a spokesman said.
The spokesman added there had been no additional redundancy programme, with most of the reduction in headcount coming from not replacing people leaving the business.
Despite the fall, Morrisons’ overall staffing costs climbed slightly to £2.1bn per year as employer National Insurance contributions and other social security costs climbed £30m to £172m as a result of Labour’s tax increases.
It comes as Morrisons tries to recover ground lost to discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi. Lidl overtook Morrisons’ UK market share this year, pushing it into sixth place among Britain’s biggest grocers.
The chain has been under pressure since it was bought for £7bn by US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2021, a deal that left it carrying billions of pounds of debt.
Accounts for Morrisons’ parent company revealed that its net debt piled climbed to £7.5bn in the year to October 2025, amid a rise in store rental commitments, up from £7bn. The supermarket group also swung to a loss of £926bn before tax on the back of a cyber attack and write-downs.
Morrisons, which has about 500 larger stores and thousands of convenience shops, has also been seeking to raise cash from its property portfolio, holding talks over a potential £600m deal to sell stores and then rent them back.
The supermarket chain announced plans this year to close 100 former McColl’s stores, since rebranded as Morrisons Daily. Rami Baitieh, the chief executive, blamed an “avalanche of costs” facing the business.
Revenue rose 2.8pc to £15.7bn, while underlying earnings from continuing operations were broadly unchanged at £835m.
A spokesman said Morrisons had grown like-for-like sales in every quarter, maintained its market share and reduced both debt and interest costs.
“Colleague numbers in the year ending October 2025 primarily reflect the impact of the closure of the newspaper home delivery service in convenience, the restructuring of the retail people team and the down-sizing of the Rathbones bakery business,” the spokesman said.
“There was no additional redundancy programme in stores, where numbers were only reduced by not replacing those who had chosen to leave.”
