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- Pick n Pay has begun a retrenchment process that could affect up to 700 junior manager jobs.
- However, the group expects to create more junior level positions.
- It has started a separate voluntary retrenchment process, which recently closed.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Pick n Pay has embarked on a retrenchment process that could affect up to 700 junior management jobs.
The JSE-listed retailer confirmed on Monday it was in the early stages of a retrenchment programme, which is currently before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
David North, chief business transformation officer at Pick n Pay, told News24 the retailer could not release any numbers on potential job losses as it was still consulting with staff.
However, News24 understands that up to 700 junior manager jobs could be affected. Pick n Pay has some 90 000 employees.
Pick n Pay is expected to create new junior level jobs across its supermarkets as it rolls out a new strategy announced in May last year that splits its core Pick n Pay offering into two distinct brands, namely Pick n Pay and Pick n Pay QualiSave.
News24 understands that this may result in the company ending up with more staff overall than it currently has.
North said the company was "modernising" its store management structures, removing roles which were no longer required.
"But we are also creating new roles that provide greater service and flexibility in our stores. While some roles will no longer be required, others will be created. Overall more jobs will be created in stores than exist at present. If staff are prepared to be flexible about [their] roles, then there may well be jobs for them and there will be more jobs overall than there were at the beginning of the process.
Junior receiving manager jobs had been affected at Pick n Pay as the company had been centralising its distribution over the past 15 years. This means that the several receiving managers any given store had in the past, were no longer necessary as they now received fewer deliveries a day.
Separately, the company had also begun a voluntary severance programme, which North said Pick n Pay had in recent years undertaken every two to three years.
This was a programme that was offered to all staff across the group and was "not to be confused" with this retrenchment process.
He could not give any numbers on staff who had asked to take voluntary retrenchment packages, adding that applications had only just closed.
READ | Pick n Pay Clothing wants to double its stores, but the battle is on for suitable sites
Makwe Masilela, who heads up Makwe Fund Managers, said some job losses were to be expected when any business streamlined its operations.
Some of the jobs would be "absorbed into the bigger group" although some workers may not find themselves at the same grade they were at previously.
"You might not be a junior manager anymore, but you will potentially still be able to get a job elsewhere within the group."
