Grocery wholesaler Metcash Ltd has revealed fresh consolidation moves that it said would prepare the company for the future but would unfortunately lead to hundreds of job losses.

The restructuring would lead to the closing down of unprofitable stores and to the merging of a number of company functions and operations, which should eliminate duplication and improve efficiency at the same time, Metcash chief executive Andrew Reitzer said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Reitzer added that regrettably, up to 478 company employees would be affected by the resulting redundancies and Metcash would be compelled to let them go.

Those who will get the axe will mostly come from Campbells and the company's fresh food and merchandising operations, Metcash said.

Campbells alone would lose as many as 315 jobs once 15 regional branches of Campbells Cash & Carry have been closed, the company said.

Corporate staffs will make up the remaining job cuts, Metcash reported.

Reitzer admitted that Metcash had expanded too aggressively in the past years, specifically its Cornetts and Walters IGA businesses, both of which took considerable hits owing to economic difficulties and deflation.

"Both companies have taken on many new stores in recent years and the current trading environment has stifled their ability to develop these stores to acceptable levels of profitability," the Metcash CEO said.

Also, the restructuring measures would lead to the operational consolidation of IGA Distribution, Merchandising, Fresh and Campbells businesses, all of which will then be placed under the newly-established Metcash Food and Grocery, Reitzer said.

The company revealed too the sale of its Foodlink food business to Bidvest Australia, which in turn will absorb the affected the employees.

Metcash has not provided the exact amount involved in the transaction, The Herald Sun said on Tuesday.

Yet the whole adjustments, according to Reitzer, will result in one-off charge of up to $43 million that will be reflected on Metcash's fiscal 2012 results, figures of which will be published shortly after April 30.

Reitzer said weak consumer activities in the retail industry and deflation battered Metcash's earning possibilities in the soon-to-end fiscal period.

"These difficult conditions result from continued deflation which is pushing prices and margins down, and a value-conscious consumer who increasingly purchases on discount," Reitzer was quoted by AAP as saying in a statement.

He, however, stressed that Metcash will achieve its medium single digit underlying earnings from the past 12 months leading to end of April 2012.