Asda is reportedly planning to slash hundreds of jobs as part of its plans to tackle the discounters and cope with structural changes in the industry.

According to Sky News, Asda will inform staff this week about the latest round of redundancies, which will be mainly focused on its head office in Leeds. Responding to the report, Asda told Sky News that the industry faces major challenges and the certainty of permanent structural change. “In the context of this, we also have to further change the way we do business.” 

The retailer added: “Today, we have started to talk to our colleagues in head office functions about what this means for them. We have made some difficult but necessary decisions but we must discuss these with our colleagues before we talk publicly.” 

Sources quoted by Sky News said the final number of redundancies from Asda’s head office remained unclear but added that it would be "in the hundreds". 

Asda is due to reveal its Christmas trading figures next month with recent data from Kantar Worldpanel suggesting it continued its recent poor run of performance.