M&S confirms plan to axe over 500 roles at head office

London - Marks & Spencer have confirmed rumours of proposed job cuts and aims to axe as many as 525 roles at its head office in London as part of its reorganisation scheme. In addition to cutting jobs at its head office, M&S also aims on cutting or relocating 400 permanent roles across its IT and logistics department outside of central London.

Marks & Spencer announced proposed changes to its UK head office Monday morning, following several news reports which speculated the British retailer was aiming to cut 15 percent of it headoffice workforce.

Marks & Spencer confirms plan to cut over 500 jobs at its UK head offices

The British department store group revealed it had entered into a consultation period with its employees over proposals to introduce significant changes to its head office structure. According to a statement published by the retailer, the proposals have been develop following a detailed review of the company and an analysis of its processes. The job cuts will affect employees at three of M&S London office as well as jobs with contractors, but will not impact M&S store employees.

"M&S has to become a simpler and more effective organisation if we are to deliver our plans to recover and grow our business," said Steve Rowe, Chief Executive Officer at M&S. "It is never easy to propose changes that impact on our people, but I believe that the proposals outlined today are absolutely necessary and will help us build a different type of M&S – one that can take bolder, pacier decisions, be more profitable and ultimately better serve our customers. We remain committed to investing in store staffing and improving our customer experience and therefore our store colleagues are not affected by this proposal."

Marks & Spencer aims to help redefine its organisation by reducing the number of head office roles by approximately 525 roles and relocating 400 roles across its IT and logistics departments. The department store group highlighted that if the redundancy proposals should go through they would "deliver significant cost savings" and help M&S save up to 1 percent of its UK operating costs per year.

The announcement comes just days after M&S announced it was set to go ahead with proposed changes to its pay, premium and pension rates.

Photos: M&S, Corporate images of Steve Rowe and Vangarde Monks Cross