Warehouse Group to cut jobs at its head office

The Warehouse is planning to cut an unspecified number of jobs in its head office in Auckland.

The Warehouse Group is looking to make cuts at head office as the retailer continues its back-to-basics overhaul.

“We have let our teams know that we will be proposing changes to our organisational structure next week,” a Warehouse Group spokesperson said.

“This redesign will not affect any frontline team members and is about shifting our focus to our brands and driving our performance.”

Out of a total of 11,000 employees, “roughly” 1000 are at the group’s head office in Auckland, according to the spokesperson.

The company has not given an estimate of how many jobs are likely to go as it wants to present it to employees first.

More of the same

The Warehouse indicated on June 18 that it was looking to trim staff. This news came in its first market announcement concerning operations since chief executive Nick Grayston’s abrupt departure in May.

Interim CEO John Journee said then that the company would disestablish six of its nine group executive leadership roles.

In the same announcement, The Warehouse said it would create five new retail leadership roles that would report directly to the CEO.

At the time, The Warehouse indicated that these would likely be paid less than the disestablished roles.

In the company’s annual report for the year to July 30, 2023, it declared that 125 staff received remuneration of more than $250,000, totalling an estimated $40 million.

NZME cannot confirm what proportion of these were at the head office.

An updated look at how The Warehouse pays its employees will be available in its 2024 full-year results, set to be released on September 26.

Trying times

On top of a tough retail environment, the cuts at head office come as The Warehouse is under unrelenting pressure from competition.

Chinese giants such as Shein and Temu were cited as reasons for the company’s e-commerce platform TheMarket.com being written off.

Australian retailers such as JB Hi-Fi and Chemist Warehouse have established operations in New Zealand and are expanding.

Swedish retailer Ikea is expected to set up in Auckland in late 2025.

At the same time, the group’s bet on Torpedo7 petered out in February when it sold the operation for $1 to Tahua Partners.

On June 18, Journee reiterated his position that, if the company intended to turn itself around, it needed to focus on its bread and butter: The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery and Noel Leeming.

“We’re not where we need to be and we must act decisively to fix that. We need to be leaner and focused on our core brands.”