The supermarket chain said it was responding to changes in customer habits, including a shift towards using the larger Metro stores for convenience shopping rather than large weekly food shops. It is also facing tough competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl, which are continuing to open new shops.

But labour groups said the cuts indicated that the government was not doing enough to alleviate the burden on traditional shops and prevent the high street being “hollowed out”. According to the British Retail Consortium the number of people employed in retail is down 72,000 on a year ago.

In a statement on its website, Tesco said the job cuts were part of an effort to “simplify and reduce processes and administrative tasks” across all of its Metro stores.

“The changes in our Metro stores will be focused on better tailoring them to how our customers shop,” it said.

“The Metro format was originally designed for larger, weekly shops, but today nearly 70 per cent of customers use them as convenience stores, buying food for that day.”

It said it could cut staff numbers because it had found simpler ways of stacking shelves that meant there was less need to store stock in backrooms, while it also wanted to simplify store management structures and introduce more flexible working hours.

Tesco will also reduce opening hours in 134 of its 1,750 smaller neighbourhood Express stores, where customer traffic is lower.

Jason Tarry, the supermarket’s UK and Ireland boss, said: “In a challenging, evolving retail environment, with increasing cost pressures, we have to continue to review the way we run our stores to ensure we reflect the way our customers are shopping and do so in the most efficient way.

“We do not take any decision which impacts colleagues lightly, but have to make sure we remain relevant for customers and operate a sustainable business now and in the future.”

The retailer, which has more than 300,000 UK employees and more than 3,400 stores, said earlier this year it could cut 9,000 jobs, although it hoped to redeploy up to half into other customer service roles. Fishmonger, butcher and baker jobs at the retailer were expected to be at risk, along with counter staff.

The cuts at Tesco are part of plans by the chief executive, Dave Lewis, to slash 1.5 billion pounds (Bt56.1 billion) from Tesco’s cost base.

A source at Tesco’s operations in Thailand revealed that the job cut is in line with the reshuffle at UK operations and does not have any impact on the Thai operations. The company declined to make any further comment.

With high net profit growth, the company’s board of directors meeting on Tuesday (August 6) approved to pay the interim dividend payment of Bt0.25 per share for the period January 1 to June 30, 2019 on September 3, 2019. Shareholders were entitled to receive a dividend on August 21, 2019.

Dividend payment of Bt0.25 per share is subject to a 10 per cent withholding tax, or Bt0.025 per share, as it is derived from profit under a non-BOI privilege. The net dividend paid will value Bt0.225 per share, according to the company report to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Tuesday.

The company announced total revenue of Bt32.21 billion in the second quarter of this year, a 4.6 per cent drop from the same period of last year after the Thai baht appreciated against the EUR and GBP between six and seven per cent, according to the company reports.

Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, sales would still decline (-2.2 per cent) along with a volume sales decrease.

Meanwhile, the company’s sales revenue in the first half of this year was down 2.4 per cent when compared with the same period of last year to Bt61.58 billion, driven partly by foreign exchange impact.

But the company reports gross profit of Bt5.36 billion in the second quarter of this year, up 13.1 per cent from the same period of last year.

In the first half of this year, the company also recorded gross profit of Bt9.74 billion, up 19.9 per cent from the same period of last year.

With the gross profit improvement, in the second quarter of this year normalised operating profit was at Bt1.57 billion, up 29.6 per cent in the same period of last year, despite booking labour retirement benefits of Bt205 million.

In the first half of this year, its normalised net profit was at Bt2.78 billion, up 24.6 per cent from the same period of last year.

“Profitability remains a key focus for us at Thai Union, and the overall performance in the second quarter was pleasing, particularly in a challenging operating environment,” the company’s chief executive officer Thiraphong Chansiri said at press release on Tuesday.

“As we look ahead, Thai Union will continue to see new innovative products developed and launched in the market, which will provide us with new revenue streams as we work to build a business with sustainable growth.”

During 2Q19, Thai Union subsidiary Chicken of the Sea reached a settlement with a majority of plaintiffs in an ongoing antitrust litigation in the US, resulting in an additional Bt1.4 billion after tax. Excluding the one-time accrual, the company recorded a net profit of Bt1.51 billion.

“We share this updated litigation status as Chicken of the Sea has now appropriately provided for any financial impact,” said Joerg Ayrle, group chief financial officer.

Thai Union continues to invest in innovation, and in June its new Global Innovation Centre in Bangkok was officially opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. The facility has been expanded to over 5,000 square metres, and houses more than 160 scientists and researchers from around the world, Thiraphong said.

Bangchak Venture Pte Ltd has registered capital of US$100,000 (Bt3.07 million), according to company reports to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Tuesday.

The new company will invest in startups related to business innovation, in order to support its business expansion in innovative businesses, the company said.

“Animal welfare directly contributes to morals and ethics that include food safety and quality,” said Dr Payungsak Somyanontanakul, DVM vice president and chairman of CP Foods’ Animal Welfare Committee. “Therefore, raising animals healthily and seeing to their well-being, taking into account their rights, definitely promotes consumers’ health and satisfaction.”

Payungsak explained that healthy animals produce better quality meat. The use of antibiotics is also significantly reduced in high welfare farms.

CP Foods is well aware that good animal welfare covers both animals’ mental and physical well-being, he said. Therefore, it is enhancing farming principles based on “Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare”, an internationally recognised principle, to ensure that all of its livestock farms are animal-friendly. Moreover, the antibiotics used at its farms as well as those by contract farmers are administered under veterinary oversight without compromising on animal welfare principles, he added.

“We have been focusing on improving the farming environment and providing enrichment to animals. They are free to eat, rest, and excrete as needed and can fully express their natural behaviour,” he said.

The company is transitioning its pig housing from individual stalls to group gestation pens for sows to give them the freedom to move and interact, helping them to feel more relaxed and stress-free.

Around 67.3 per cent of sow farms in Thailand and 14.9 per cent overseas will switch to group gestation pens this year. The global transition will be completed by 2028.

Payungsak added that the company has also built individual pens within a group pen for injured or ill sows.

“It is possible that some sows can be injured or ill. In these cases, the sows will typically be separated from the group and cared for in a different pen. However, once the sows recover, they could become reinjured as they might be restricted by the grouping behaviour of sows if they are returned to the same pen,” he explained.

Last year, CP Foods collaborated with Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Veterinary Science to develop tests for Classical Swine Fever and Aujesky’s Disease using swine saliva.

To date, the company has tested more than 13,000 samples of swine saliva for diseases, replacing the need to conduct blood tests on over 30,000 specimens.

In chicken farms, 100 per cent of the company’s broilers for producing meat have not carried any mutilations. CP Foods ensures that the average stocking density of broiler farming in Thailand and its overseas operations comply with European animal welfare directives and customer requirements, he said.

Cage-free housing for layer chickens is being piloted in Thailand, with the first batch of production from Wang Somboon farm in Saraburi province being launched in March 2019. Overseas, the company is implementing cage-free layer farms in Taiwan and Cambodia at 12 and 50 per cent of their production capacities, respectively.