Autumn Statement 2016: Inflation
A woman shops at a Sainsbury's store in London Neil Hall/ Reuters

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is considering 1,000 head office job cuts as part of a cost cutting exercise.

A report in the Sunday Telegraph claimed the UK's second-biggest supermarket chain is considering the cuts in a bid to save £500m.

The newspaper also said Sainsbury's has called in management consultants McKinsey to put forward cost reduction recommendations,

The announcement is expected in September, with the redundancies largely affecting human resources and staff training, according to the report.

It follows Sainsbury's decision to cut 400 jobs at its stores in March.

A spokesman for the company declined comment on what he described as "media speculation."

The company's shares were down 0.61% of 1.51p to 251.12p at 10:28am BST.