Pets at Home puts 2,500 jobs under consultation to ‘simplify business’

Pets at Home has confirmed that it has put 2,500 jobs under consultation as it looks to streamline its store management.

The company revealed that it is considering moving from three staff levels to two, pets colleagues and a new pets customer expert role.

Alongside this, the company is also looking to move from three management levels to two, store manager and deputy manager.

As a result of this, Pets at Home is consulting on removing the assistant manager and store assistant roles; however people in these roles will have the opportunity to transition into pets colleagues and pets customer expert positions.

Pets at Home stressed that this move was not a move to cut jobs or reduce headcount but to create a “simpler, fairer, and more efficient retail business”. To go with this the company will be investing £7m in pay for its retail staff.

A spokesperson for Pets at Home said: “Pets at Home has grown significantly over the past few years to become the UK’s leading pet care business. Whilst we have been through this growth, we have some ways of working which don’t match the business we are today.

“To set Pets at Home up for the future and deliver a great customer experience, we are proposing to restructure our retail business and will be consulting with around 2,500 of our Pet Care Centre colleagues.”

They added: “To be clear, this is not an exercise based around reducing headcount, it is a process to make sure the business is fit for the future. Ultimately, whilst our structure will look slightly different and this is a transition from legacy ways of working, what is not changing is our commitment to our people and to our customers and their pets.”