Tech retailer
Dixons Carphone plc - the company behind the Currys PC World and
Carphone Warehouse brands in the UK - has announced plans to 'streamline' its store management, with up to 800 jobs expected to be cut across shops in the UK and Ireland. It says the new in-store management structure will improve the experience for shoppers.
Dixons Carphone plans to remove the Retail Manager, Assistant Manager and Team Leader roles, whilst introducing new Sales Manager, Customer Experience Manager and Operational Excellence Manager roles. Stores without a Business Hub will also lose their Business Advisors.
The changes would result in an overall reduction of 800 roles, although Dixons Carphone says there'll be opportunities for colleagues to join the team behind its video-based
ShopLive shopping service.
Mark Allsop, Chief Operating Officer at Dixons Carphone, said “We remain committed to our stores as part of an omnichannel future, where we offer the best of online and stores to our customers. As part of this we want to empower our store leadership teams, create a flatter management structure and make it easy for our customers to shop with us, however they choose. This proposal will ensure in-store roles are focused on giving a seamless customer experience and exceptional service across all our customer channels, whether online or in-store. Sadly, this proposal means we have now entered into consultation with some of our store colleagues. This was not an easy decision and we’ll do everything possible to look after those colleagues we can’t find new roles for, financially and otherwise.”
Around 24,000 people currently work for Dixons Carphone in the UK and Ireland. Earlier this year the company announced plans to close its 531 stand-alone Carphone Warehouse stores, with around 2,900 redundancies anticipated at the time.