Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has announced plans to axe 300 jobs across its store support centres and replace them with outsourced roles.

Employees working in food commercial, finance operations and people services at Sainsbury's head offices in Manchester, Holborn in London, and Ansty in Warwickshire are said to be affected by the cost-cutting measure.

The grocer informed those affected today and said the roles will be outsourced to Accenture.

A Sainsbury's spokesperson told Retail Week: "We are focused on our plans to put food back at the heart of Sainsbury's. To achieve this, we are becoming a more simple, nimble and efficient business so that we can reinvest in what matters most to customers - low prices, exciting new products and convenient ways to shop.

"We are talking to a small proportion of our store support centre colleagues about some changes we are proposing to the way we work.

"Colleagues affected will enter into a consultation process and we are supporting them through this in any way we can. This includes exploring alternative roles within Sainsbury's, as well as providing independent support with job opportunities elsewhere as part of a redundancy package which far exceeds statutory requirements."