Tesco will cut about 800 jobs at its largest stores, including several in the county.

The supermarket will remove 1,700 management positions nationally and replace them with 900 new roles in a bid to give managers “more direct accountability”.

The move – which will abolish its people manager, compliance manager and customer manager positions – affects all of its Extra and Superstores, as well as some of its larger Metro stores. A total of 757 sites are affected.

Tesco has Extra stores in Ashford, Broadstairs, Cheriton in Folkestone, Gillingham, Larkfield, Whitfield near Dover and Whitstable.

It has Superstores in Faversham, Maidstone, Pembury, Sevenoaks, Sheerness and Strood.

Matt Davies, chief executive of Tesco in the UK and Ireland, said: “These changes remove complexity and will deliver a simpler, more helpful experience for colleagues and customers.

“We recognise these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future.

"We recognise these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future..." - Matt Davies, Tesco

“Our priority now is to support affected colleagues through these changes in any way we can.

“We hope to retain as many colleagues as possible in the new roles we have created and in the vacancies we currently have available.”

The retailer said it will try to find alternative roles for the 1,700 staff affected “wherever possible”.

The company is trying to find £1.5 billion of savings before 2020 as it readjusts its business model to tackle competition from discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl.

It also faces rising costs, with the national minimum wage increasing to £7.83 an hour in April, having already risen from £7.20 to £7.50 last year.

It slashed 1,200 head office jobs last summer and another 1,100 after closing its call centre in Cardiff.

It also follows an accounting scandal at the firm in 2014, where it overstated profits by £250 million.

Its new chief executive has ordered more than 10,000 job cuts since he took charge of the business that year.