TESCO will close all of its remaining counters and hot delis from February 26, the company has confirmed.

This will affect its stores across the UK, including in Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey.

The supermarket first made changes to its counters in 2019, and has been reviewing them on an ongoing basis since then.

Tesco’s stores in the aforementioned North Wales counties can be found in Abergele, Bangor, Bethesda, Benllech, Caernarfon, Llandudno Junction, Prestatyn and Ruthin.

The company said: “We have seen a significant decrease in demand for our counters over the last few years, and our customers no longer say they are a significant reason for them to come in store and shop with us.

“Instead, they are choosing to buy from our wide range of great quality products available in our aisles.

“The majority of our stores no longer operate any counters.

“In the small number of stores that do still have them, many are only open with reduced days and times – and we have strengthened our in-aisle ranges to ensure that customers can still find the meat, fish and deli products they want.”

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All affected colleagues will be offered alternatives roles in store, Tesco said.

Where the company can work with a third party to offer a counter experience in-store, it will continue to do so.

Tesco UK and Ireland chief executive, Jason Tarry, added: “These are difficult decisions to make.

“But they are necessary to ensure we remain focused on delivering value for our customers wherever we can, as well as ensuring our store offer reflects what our customers value the most.

“Our priority is to support those colleagues impacted and help find alternative roles within our business from the vacancies and newly created roles we have available.”

Tesco will also be introducing approximately 1,800 new shift leader roles in its Superstores and Extra stores, leading on the day-to-day operational duties on the shop floor.

It will also realign its manager roles to ensure they are all of equal size and complexity, focusing on overall store performance.

As such, it has reduced the number of lead and team managers in its large stores, impacting about 1,750 colleagues.

It is supporting colleagues impacted by these changes, who will have the option of moving into shift leader vacancies with financial support, or of taking redundancy.