UK supermarket Sainsbury's plans to cut 1,500 roles

LONDON (Reuters) - British supermarket group Sainsbury's said on Thursday it plans to cut about 1,500 roles, as it seeks cost savings to invest back into the business.

Sainsbury's, Britain's second-largest grocer after Tesco, said the jobs will go at its store support centre, its contact centre operations, in its in-store bakeries and in its general merchandise fulfilment network.

The group, which employs about 152,000, said where possible it will find alternative roles for impacted staff.

The changes form part of the group's new "Next Level Sainsbury's" strategy, which CEO Simon Roberts detailed earlier this month.

That set a new cost savings target of 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) over three years.

($1 = 0.7893 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton)