Ammon News - It comes after the chain's US owner Walmart announced plans to sell the business to UK billionaire petrol station tycoons, the Issa brothers for £6.8billion.

Asda has launched consultations with around 5,000 staff over a major restructuring which could put around 3,000 back office store workers at risk.

It comes after the chain's US owner Walmart announced plans to sell the business to UK billionaire petrol station tycoons, the Issa brothers for £6.8billion.

Supermarket giant Asda said the major restructuring has been driven by the "structural shift" towards online grocery shopping during the pandemic.

The grocery firm said it also plans to create around 4,500 jobs in its online operations this year and will look to hire staff affected by the restructuring.

Roger Burnley, Asda chief executive officer and president, said: "The pandemic has accelerated change across the retail sector especially the shift towards grocery home shopping and our priority is to serve customers in the way they want to shop with us.

"The last 12 months have shown us that businesses have to be prepared to adapt quickly to change and I am incredibly proud of the way we demonstrated our agility and resilience through the pandemic.

"We know that these proposed changes will be unsettling for colleagues and our priority is to support them during this consultation process.

"Our plans to transform the business will result in more roles being created than those we propose to remove and our absolute aim is to ensure as many colleagues as possible stay with us, as well as creating the opportunity to welcome new people to our business."

*MIRROR