Supermarket giant Morrisons last night confirmed it intends to transfer the work of its payroll and associated departments from its Bradford headquarters to India making 215 jobs redundant.

Letters were yesterday received by affected staff who work at the company’s HQ in Gain Lane, Thornbury , announcing that a formal 90-day consultation period had begun.

Morrisons said it wants to sub-contract its financial transaction processing services to an Indian company called Wipro in a bid to improve efficiency.

The move will mean 145 of the jobs will move to India with 70 roles being created in the city under the shake-up.

Morrisons also pledged to redeploy or retrain staff who lose their jobs to other roles in its Bradford operations. Despite that assurance the news was greeted with dismay by staff affected by the announcement.

One worker, who did not want to be named, told the Telegraph & Argus: “People are devastated.

“There’s a lot of people who have worked there for 30 years, since they were a tiny little company and been very loyal and a small group of them have been together for 30 years or so.”

Others, clearly upset, declined to speak to the Telegraph & Argus about the situation as they left work last night.

In a statement, Morrisons said under the proposals 165 roles will move to Wipro, which will retain 20 positions in the city. The supermarket group will also create 50 new jobs in the city, meaning a total of 145 roles will be lost.

A Morrisons spokesman said: “The work undertaken by 145 colleagues may move overseas. If that happens we will look to redeploy affected colleagues into other roles with Morrisons around Bradford where we employ more than 6,000 people.”

The supermarket has said it has begun to consult with employees on the changes and will be helping them through the process.

The spokesman said: “A plan will be put in place to retrain and redeploy colleagues into other roles in and around Bradford, where possible.”

The spokesman said the supermarket works with third party companies to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of support functions”.

He said: “Wipro is one of these providers of outside expertise, and Morrisons will be extending the services it provides.”