Supermarket chain Morrisons is to shut 52 cafes and 17 convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
The retailer will also close a number of in-store services, including some meat and fish counters, pharmacies and all its market kitchens in an attempt to redirect cash to other parts of the business.
It is expected the cuts will be rolled out over the next few months.
The retailer has come under significant pressure from the growth of discounter rivals, with Aldi overtaking Morrisons as the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket chain in 2022.
Morrisons said most staff affected by the changes were expected to be redeployed, but around 365 employees would be at risk of redundancy.
The store closures will all be Morrisons Daily convenience stores, which have extended opening hours.
The other closures include 52 cafes,13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters, four pharmacies and all 18 market kitchens, which are small food courts that offer freshly made meals to take away.
The chain employs 95,000 people in its 500 supermarkets and 1,600 Morrisons Dailys.
In-store cafes will be shut in five London stores, with cafes in Leeds, Portsmouth and Glasgow also affected.
In some stores, the supermarket plans to work with third parties “to provide a relevant specialist offer”, said chief executive Rami Baitiéh.
“The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.”
In January, rival Sainsbury’s announced it was shutting down the remainder of its cafes, saying that most shoppers “do not use the cafes regularly”.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Morrisons was going to have to make adjustments to be able to compete in a price-sensitive market.
“The supermarket chain is closing services seen as nice-to-have, but not essential, and scaling back its convenience footprint as it readies for a round of cost-cutting from rivals,” she said.
“Discounters Aldi and Lidl are already proving to be formidable competition. Morrison’s clearly wants to free up cash to be as value-focused as possible as an intense period of competition is forecast.”
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