High street department store chain John Lewis has placed almost 800 jobs under threat.

The group, which has a flagship store at Birmingham's Grand Central and shops in Solihull and Tamworth, said it would affect its home estimating and fitting administration support team and also its catering operations.

Under these proposals, around 773 members of staff will enter a period of consultation and 386 new jobs will be created, leading to 387 fewer roles overall.

John Lewis has not said at this stage where exactly the job losses will fall but it is hopeful some staff will be redeployed into new roles.

In its home estimation and fitting services, it is proposing to move to a regional model for our curtains, blinds and floor covering which it said would allow the group to broaden its services and increase flexibility.

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It is also proposing to create a single central customer administration hub to manage these customer orders which will replace the current individual branch administration teams.

To support the creation of this new team, it is setting up a new training facility and creating a new estimator and fitter booking system.

In its catering arm, John Lewis is proposing to extend a system which has been used in a third of its shops for a while.

This will involve a centrally created menu requiring less preparation in cafés and restaurants in individual shops.

The company said the new model would enable it to change its menu more regularly to keep up with trends and better meet the dietary requirements of customers and give a more consistent offering across all of its shops.

The changes outlined today are the first significant announcements since new managing director Paula Nickolds took over from Andy Street, who left last year to pursue his bid to become West Midland mayor.

Operations director Dino Rocos said: "Our partners are passionate about offering the very best customer service and these proposals will allow us to modernise our business as it adapts to the changing needs of our customers and the role that shops play in their lives.

"The proposed new structure will allow us to harness partners' knowledge and skills, giving them more scope to be in the right place at the right time to deliver great service to our customers when and where it's needed.

"We understand that for some this will mean a period of change and we are working with affected partners over the consultation period to give opportunities for redeployment in new roles wherever possible."