The company said it is making moves to “simplify” the business and remove elements of their offering that are not popular with customers.

All remaining Sainsbury’s cafés are in line to close, however no stores in Northern Ireland are included on the list of planned closures.

It is not known currently how many, if any, jobs in Northern Ireland are set to be lost, but there are multiple Sainsbury’s stores here with facilities that are announced for closure.

The business has 12 stores around Northern Ireland, including at Forestside Shopping Centre in south Belfast, Sprucefield Retail Park in Lisburn, Strand Road in Londonderry, Bangor, Kennedy Centre in west Belfast, Coleraine and Quays Shopping Centre in Newry.

UK-wide, the headcount reduction represents about 2% of the company’s current 148,000-strong workforce.

It will see about 20% of senior management roles cut at the supermarket giant as part of plans to focus on fewer, bigger roles and to simplify its head office and management teams.

The head office job losses will take place over the next few months.

The cuts come after Sainsbury’s announced its “biggest ever” Christmas trading period and said profit for the full-year would likely be between £1.01bn and £1.06bn earlier in January.

But the supermarket is also trying to cut costs by £1bn-a-year, and last year it cut about 1,500 roles, mostly from a contact centre in Cheshire.

The latest job cuts will see the company “explore redeployment opportunities where this is possible” for people affected.

The company said in late 2024 that tax increases from the October Budget would hit it with an extra £140m in costs, warning that the changes would also lead to higher inflation.

Labour has said it will make companies pay more in national insurance contributions, as well as raising the minimum wage.

The policy is designed to fund improvements to public services like the NHS, but some companies have criticised it for making it more expensive to employ people.

Sainsbury’s said earlier in January that it would give staff a 5% pay increase in 2025 to help workers through a “particularly tough cost inflation environment”.

Following the announcement, a Downing Street spokesperson stressed that “difficult decisions” in the Budget would help pave the way for economic growth.

Asked how the Government would respond to suggestions that lay-offs at the supermarket were influenced by the Budget, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Growing the economy, backing businesses, putting more money in people’s pockets are obviously the priority.

“It is only by growing the economy we can fund our public services and raise living standards.

“But as we said at the Budget, difficult decisions were needed to restore economic stability, and put the public finances back on to a stable footing following the £22bn black hole, and that was a pre-cursor to driving economic growth.”

Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said: “We launched our Next Level Strategy almost a year ago and are totally focused on making good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day.

“As a result, we’re seeing real momentum across our business, with a best-ever value position, leading quality and increasing market share.

“As we accelerate into year two and beyond of our strategy, we are facing into a particularly challenging cost environment which means we have had to make tough choices about where we can afford to invest and where we need to do things differently to make our business more efficient and effective.

“The decisions we are announcing today are essential to ensure we continue to drive forward our momentum but have also meant some difficult choices impacting our dedicated colleagues in a number of parts of our business.

“We’ll be doing everything we can to support anyone impacted by today’s announcements.”