Warehouse restructure to fit 'ever shifting needs of Kiwis'

The Warehouse confirms job losses after three weeks, both Napier and Hastings stores will be affected. Photo / File

The Warehouse has confirmed its plans to refine its store leadership structure.

It's the first change of its kind for the big red shed in 15 years.

The Warehouse CEO Pejman Okhovat said retail and customer behaviour is changing 'like never before'.

"We need to evolve from a traditional, hierachal structure to one that is fit for the future and the ever shifting needs of Kiwis," he said.

"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 paths for team members."

The Warehouse confirmed that between 120-140 "full time equivalent roles" would be lost over the chain's 92 stores, yet 'every effort was being made to re-deploy as many team members as possible into vacant roles.'

The Warehouse made the final decision after a detailed review of nearly 15,000 individual items of feedback from both store managers and team members.

Throughout today , every impacted team member would be meeting with their store manager to discuss their circumstances.

Staff members were offered confidential counselling and other support.

Meanwhile, Kmart has stepped into the spotlight to offer Warehouse workers jobs for both managers and team members.

Kmart confirmed it would offer jobs to both Napier and Hastings Warehouse workers.

First Union requested other retailers experiencing growth in what was a healthy New Zealand retail market to also come forward should they require more staff.

First Union organiser Kate Davis said the survey undertaken for The Warehouse restructure took four days from both members and the wider general public.

"The survey shows 95 per cent of respondents value seeing familiar faces from their local communities at The Warehouse, it also shows 90 per cent of people prefer to pay for their items with a checkout person."

"Sixty per cent of respondents feel The Warehouse has become less community oriented in the past five years. It's heading in the wrong direction, if it goes through with this proposal there's no going back."