Up to 140 fulltime jobs to go at The Warehouse as retailer confirms changes in leadership structure

First Union says it expects jobs losses at The Warehouse to be double the retailer's forecast. Photo / Supplied

The Warehouse has confirmed between 120 and 140 fulltime jobs will be lost in its latest restructure.

First Union retail organiser Kate Davis believed close to twice that number would be affected, as most of the company's workforce is employed on a part-time basis.

"We are still absolutely appalled that they are going ahead with change - it's totally unnecessary," Davis said.

"We're really concerned this is a trend with The Warehouse... throughout their entire redundancy process they are hiring casual workers, this entire move is just a move towards more precarious, less-secure work."

The NZX-listed retailer said this is the first change to its leadership structure in 15 years.

Warehouse head Pejman Okhovat said the restructure would deliver a number of benefits.

"The new leadership structure will deliver a number of benefits to team members and therefore customers, including increased staffing levels at peak times, better leadership support during trading hours, improved sick and holiday cover and better-defined career pathways for team members," Okhovat said.

"Retail and customer behaviour is changing like never before, so we need to evolve from a traditional, hierarchical structure to one that is fit for the future and the ever-shifting needs of Kiwis."

The job losses will be spread between The Warehouse's network of 92 stores and affect supervisors and team leaders.

The retailer said it would look to redeploy as many of those employees into other vacant roles throughout the business.

Davis said the latest move to cut staff was no different to earlier restructures.

"A pyramid-shaped management team will still remain a pyramid-shaped management team," she said.

"I think this is a way for them to have a more casualised workforce."

Davis said it could be making room for more high-profile appointments. "How many more million-dollar execs do they need? How many more million-dollar men can one company afford?"

Earlier in the month, The Warehouse floated cutting 180 jobs, in a redundancy proposal said to be developed by a group of working store managers.

Retail consultant Chris Wilkinson said the move was necessary for the retailer to move in line with its competitors.

"The Warehouse has likely been labouring under a legacy store management model for some time - comparative to others in this sector and similar major brands overseas, many of which have undergoing this process of realignment," Wilkinson said.

"Reducing layers creates greater accountability, more autonomy and drives performance.

"[This] will likely let their best talent shine, but be challenging for those not at the top of their game."

Analysts say the layoffs could steady the retailer's decline in profitability.

Hobson Wealth Partners head of investments Mark Fowler earlier in the month told the Herald the move to reduce senior staffers was part of its transformation programme.

"The fact that most of these job reductions are in leadership roles sends a clear message to the market that they are executing on the transformation and that their current operating model is not working."

He said the move was not the retailer's first attempt at a transformation.

"If executed well there is a potential upside to future trading profits, but given the lack of success from previous transformation projects there is still a high degree of earnings uncertainty."

The Warehouse could not confirm how many people the changes would affect.