Woolworths close the majority of its 300 in-store butcher shops with the loss of as many as 500 jobs

Woolworths will follow Coles and close the majority of its in-store butcheries as shoppers prefer pre-packaged meat, with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Woolworths will close the majority of its in-store butcheries as shoppers prefer pre-packaged meat, with the loss of 500 jobs. Picture: AAP Image / Dave Hunt

As many as 500 butchers and meat workers are facing the chop at Woolworths after the supermarket giant decided to close the majority of its 300 in-store supermarket butcheries to instead offer only pre-packaged meat to shoppers.

The move follows a similar decision by rival supermarket chain Coles in late 2021 when it shut all its in-store butchery counters which at the time impacted as many as 1400 roles, although the retailer pledged to help retrain many and redeploy the meat workers elsewhere in the retail business.

Ultimately around two thirds of the Coles butchers took a redundancy package.

Now it is Woolworths taking the axe to the butchery service, shutting down 250 of its remaining 300 butcher shops within its supermarket network with the supermarket giant informing its staff of the decision on Thursday.

All Woolworths supermarkets offer fresh, pre-cut packaged meat available on shelf, while around 30 per cent also currently have a butcher shop.

But in recent years, in stores which offer both options, it is believed Woolworths has seen a shift in customer preference away from in store butcher shops, in favour of prepackaged meat. In stores which offer butcher shops, only around 10 per cent of customers purchase their meat at the butcher counter.

It is understood that customer demand for butcher shops is significantly lower than other counters such as seafood, deli and bakery.

As a result of a recent review into the long term viability of Woolworths’ butcher shops, around 250 are set to close by the end of March this year. Around 50 butcher shops will remain in operation. These are located in specific stores where their trade is supported by sufficient demand. Operations in these stores will be streamlined to reduce the amount of on-site processing, and remove the use of bandsaws and mincers.

A total of 489 roles will come to an end when the butcher shops close in March, made up of 420 trade qualified butchers and 69 skilled non-trade workers.

Woolworths will close the majority of its 300 in-store butcher shops with the loss of almost 500 jobs. Picture: AAP Image / Dave Hunt

Under the closure plan, around 200 team members who work some hours in the butcher shop as well as other parts of the store will have their rosters adjusted to work solely in other departments. These team members have completed additional meat slicing training provided by Woolworths and their substantive role as a store team member will be retained after the closures.

Team members whose roles are made redundant as a result of this change will be provided redeployment to a different role within Woolworths if that is their preference. Team members who do not want to or are not able to be redeployed will be offered post-employment support free of charge, including individual career coaching, resume development, a job search plan, LinkedIn profile and interview coaching, connections to relevant employment and training opportunities in their local area and financial planning support.

“We’ve recently conducted a review into our in-store butcher shops and found that they account for just 4 per cent of meat sales as customers continue to move towards our more convenient pre-packaged options,” a Woolworths spokeswoman said on Friday.

“We have around 1,000 supermarkets, and about 300 currently have butcher shops. We’ve made the difficult decision to close the majority of our remaining butcher counters over the coming months, with the exception of 50 stores where they are supported by the necessary customer demand.

“We deeply regret the impact of this decision on the team members who work in our butcher shops and we know many of them are well known by our regular customers.

“We’re very grateful for the contribution these team members have made and we’ll be offering redeployment to another role for those who are interested, or re-employment support for those who leave the business.”

THE CLOSURES

NSW/ACT: 75

VIC: 62

QLD: 49

WA: 44

SA/NT: 17

TAS: 4