Vodafone Group is reportedly planning to axe jobs as a way to meet its goal of cutting operating costs by €1 billion (£888 million) by 2026.
The company is mulling job cuts which could affect hundreds of employees, including those based in its Paddington office in London, per the Financial Times.
Vodafone Group has experienced challenges in recent years during which time the company’s value has declined by 40% since 2018.
Former CEO Nick Read decided to step down in December 2022 after taking on the role four years earlier. He first joined the company in 2002, working for more than 20 years at the organisation.
Before he left, Read said in the company’s fiscal H1 2023 financial statement, published in November, that the organisation had a new cost-savings target of €1 billion by 2026.
The company plans to accomplish this by streamlining and simplifying the group’s structure and accelerating the digitisation of its operations.
Vodafone is yet to appoint a new CEO, but instated Margherita Della Valle, the company’s chief financial officer, as interim CEO. It also made changes to its executive committee on 12 January, with Aldo Bisio, CEO at Vodafone Italy, taking on the role of group chief commercial officer.
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“We are reviewing our operating model, focusing on streamlining and simplifying the group,” Vodafone told the FT. “We will say more about the changes when we announce our third-quarter results on 1 February.”
IT Pro has contacted Vodafone Group for comment.
Prospect union, which has members at Vodafone, told IT Pro it would ensure that any members impacted by proposed job cuts are treated fairly and consistently. The company has 9,400 workers in the UK, and 104,000 globally.
As well as aiming to save costs across its business, Vodafone is also contemplating a merger with Three. If the merger succeeds, the new company’s shares would be split by 51% to Vodafone and 49% to Three.
The proposed company would have around 27 million customers in total, ranking it second to Virgin Media O2’s 32 million customers, but exceeding EE’s 26 million.
