Tesco has confirmed that up to 9,000 jobs are at risk at its head office and in stores as part of efforts to simplify the business.

As part of the shake up, Tesco will close 90 counters in large stores, with the remaining 700 trading with either a full or flexible offer. The head office will also move to a “simpler and leaner structure”, with cuts expected.

Hot food services for staff will also be cut back and kitchen workers, employed by third-party caterers, will undergo consultation.

Tesco has 3,500 superstores across the UK, and in our area, the Tesco supermarkets which could be affected by the cuts are those in Sudbury, Bury Saint Edmunds, Saxmundham, and Stowmarket, and also Ipswich and Colchester, which both have two large Tesco supermarkets each.

Tesco cited a “competitive and challenging market” when explaining the cuts.

The supermarket giant said that while 9,000 roles could be impacted, it expects half of that number to be redeployed within the business.

In a statement, the company explained: “Over recent years, our convenience and online businesses have continued to grow, as have our core grocery and fresh departments in our large stores. Not only are customers shopping in different ways, but we know that they have less time available to shop too – which means they are using our counters less frequently. We will be making changes to the counters in our large stores to ensure that we have the right offer for customers.”

Jason Tarry, the UK and Ireland chief executive, added: “In our four years of turnaround we’ve made good progress, but the market is challenging and we need to continually adapt to remain competitive and respond to how customers want to shop.

“We’re making changes to our UK stores and head office to simplify what we do and how we do it, so we’re better able to meet the needs of our customers. This will impact some of our colleagues and our commitment is to minimise this as much as possible and support our colleagues throughout.”