SUPERMARKET Morrisons said it will axe up to 720 jobs from its Bradford head office as part of its drive to beef up staff on its shop floors.

The chain said its head office currently employs 2,300 staff, adding that the number of roles at its Bradford headquarters in Gain Lane had grown by 50 per cent since 2008.

In its supermarkets, Morrisons has begun recruiting 5,000 shop floor staff to improve service, increase availability and open more checkouts.

It said staff whose roles are made redundant would be offered a role in a Morrisons store, or will be redeployed in other parts of the business.

It added it will also offer voluntary redundancy.

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New chief executive David Potts said: "We are focusing on the things that matter to our customers. That means having more of our staff in our stores, improving product availability and helping customers at our checkouts."

Morrisons said it employs more than 20,000 people in Yorkshire in its manufacturing, logistics depots and supermarkets, adding that roles become vacant regularly.

The company is now beginning a consultation, which will last about 45 days, about reducing its headquarter's staff as away of simplifying the business.