Woolworths says it will close 250 of its in-store supermarket butchers by March as customers continue to trend towards pre-packaged meat.

“We’ve recently conducted a review into our in-store butcher shops and found that they account for just 4 per cent of meat sales as customers continue to move towards our more convenient pre-packaged options,” the company told ABC.

“We deeply regret the impact of this decision on the team members who work in our butcher shops and we know many of them are well-known by our regular customers.”

Only 50 stores will remain open across Australia beyond March to support “necessary” demand. In those remaining stores, bandsaws and mincers will be removed to reduce on-site meat processing.

About 489 jobs will be made redundant of which 420 are trade-qualified butchers and 69 are non-trade workers.

Other in-store service counters such as deli, seafood and bakery stores will continue to remain operational.