"Customers are buying fewer traditional loaves of bread and are increasingly looking for a wider range of options, with sales of wraps, bagels and flatbreads growing," Tesco said in a statement, adding that it planned to axe 1,816 jobs across stores.

Tesco, which employs around 340,000 people across its stores in the UK and Ireland, added Tuesday that it would "continue to offer scratch baking in 257 stores".

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020