Hannaford Bros. supermarket chain is offering severance packages to reduce its work force at its corporate headquarters to remain competitive, company officials say.

The Scarborough-based company in January will know if employees at the headquarters will accept severance packages and opt to retire, said company spokesman Mike Norton.

“We need to have our corporate support function be more cost effective, especially going forward,” Norton said. “It is a tough environment and we are in a competitive environment and we want to make sure we’re in a position to be highly successful.”

Norton said the corporate restructuring will have no impact on more than 27,000 workers at the company’s 167 retail stores in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Trucking and distribution will not be reduced.

“It’s essentially looking at what our key functions are and how we’re going to deliver those and structuring our office to run the business successfully,” Norton said. “It will impact positions, but we’re hoping that by offering severance packages and having people choose to retire that it will not be impacting people.”

The company has also decided to not fill several vacant positions, Norton said.

Hannaford’s restructuring is common in the food industry, said Jim Hertel, managing partner with Willard Bishop, a food retail expert and consulting firm in Chicago. Hannaford’s decision could ultimately help consumers.

“Some of the most successful food retailing firms out there today are very aggressive in terms of taking costs out of their system and passing those cost saving on to their consumers,” Hertel said. “If you look at what Wal-Mart has done with its super centers, they can operate with a lower gross margin structure. And when you can take 3 or 4 percent out of that structure and still be profitable, that’s noticeable to shoppers.”

Hannaford doesn’t know yet how much it will save or how many employees will opt for the packages, Norton said.

“We’ve certainly done things like this on a smaller scale in the past,” he said. “It’s pretty consistent in running a business in a pretty competitive environment.”