Tesco Ireland has announced it will make 350 night staff employees redundant through a voluntary scheme as part of a plan to reorganise shelf stacking operations in its Irish stores.

Some 260 employees will have the option to work day shifts or take redundancy, while 90 jobs will be permanently lost. Tesco Chief executive Dave Lewis has also raised the possibility of further job losses in the coming months.

The redundancies are part of a plan to cut operating costs to allow for price price reductions in stores.

Tesco employs around 15,000 people in Ireland, with 400 Irish companies supplying food and drink to the retailer's Irish stores. Irish exports to Tesco in 2014 were valued at €705m.

Sales in Irish Tesco outlets over Christmas fell by 5.5 percent, it announced this morning.