Costa Coffee has announced a shake-up putting up to 1,650 jobs at risk as it struggles to recover after the lockdown.
The company said it planned to axe the role of assistant store manager across its UK business.
“The ongoing impact of COVID-19 remains challenging for Costa Coffee and has required the business to make difficult decisions to ensure that as many jobs as possible are protected long-term,” Costa said in a statement.
Costa said its coffee shops had been reopening “as safely and as quickly as possible” since May with 2,400 now trading, after nearly all of its 2,700 sites had been closed for six weeks.
The company said trade had been returning, helped by the government’s VAT cut and the Eat Out To Help Out scheme but that there remained “high levels of uncertainty as to when trade will recover to pre-COVID levels”.
It comes after sandwich chain Pret A Manger last week said it was cutting 2,800 jobs.
Businesses providing services in city centres have been badly affected as, despite encouragement from the government, the level of people coming back to work in offices has remained low.