Morrisons shed nearly 5,000 roles last year as part of its cost-cutting measures.
Headcount fell by nearly 5% from 101,144 to 96,232 during the year to 26 October 2025, according to latest accounts from holding company Market Topco Limited.
The majority of the roles – 4,200 – were lost in stores following the closure of Morrisons’ newspaper delivery service in October 2025 as well as its paring back of in-store bakeries and counters.
Of the remaining 709 roles, around 200 were lost from Morrisons’ manufacturing supply chain as part of its proposed restructure of its Rathbones bakery in Wakefield, prior to its eventual closure and sale.
“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,” a Morrisons spokesman said.
“There was no additional redundancy programme in stores, where numbers were only reduced by not replacing those who had chosen to leave.”
Despite an improvement in sales, Morrisons’ losses surged to nearly £1bn in the accounts.
The supermarket blamed “unexpected headwinds” to the tune of £200m as a result of employment cost from Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget. It also lost £37m as a result of a cyberattack that crippled its supply chain in the run-up to Christmas 2024.
Morrisons’ debt costs also grew by £500m to £7.5bn following a series of sale and leaseback deals, with have increased its rental costs.
More job cuts in 2026 but turnaround making progress
CEO Rami Baitiéh has made further rounds of job cuts this financial year as part of his turnaround plan, which aims to save the supermarket up to £1bn. In January, 115 jobs were lost following the eventual closure of Rathbones.
It was followed by a further 300 roles at Morrisons’ Hilmore House HQ across March and April, as part of a restructure of Morrisons’ convenience and general merchandise and wider store support teams.
Hundreds more roles are currently set to be lost under proposals to close 100 former McColl’s Morrisons Daily stores announced in May.
Morrisons has insisted that its turnaround plan is making progress, pointing to the most recent Worldpanel data published this week which shows that its sales grew 3.3% over the 12 weeks to 9 August.
Its debt had fallen by 46% since the acquisition by CD&R in 2021, a spokesman for the supermarket said.
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