Vodafone is to axe 11,000 jobs over the next three years, its most extensive redundancy measures in the company’s history.
The cuts follow worse-than-expected financial figures and will impact more than 10% of its roughly 100,000 employees worldwide.
Roles in its UK-based HQ, as well as in Germany and Italy, are expected to be affected by the layoffs, and additional roles in Spain are under review.
"Our performance has not been good enough," said CEO Margherita Della Valle.
"My priorities are customers, simplicity and growth. We will simplify our organization, cutting out complexity to regain our competitiveness."
The telco’s revenue has fallen across key European markets but still grew by 0.3% year on year as a result of positive outcomes in Africa and in its equipment sales.
Della Valle also stated that Vodafone has not performed well in comparison to its competitors, and linked this to worsening customer experience.
“We’re targeting a significant reduction in central functions, which we started in January - stopping shared operations activities with unproven business cases – and we will also simplify our operations in the markets,” a Vodafone spokesperson told ITPro.
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In its final-year results published Tuesday, the company reported a 56% decline in unadjusted free cash flow compared to FY22, equivalent to €1.9 billion.
It also projected that its free cash flow for the coming financial year will be “around €3.3 billion”, below analyst expectations. Shares fell 4% at market open.
Della Valle said that Vodafone Business has a strong position in Europe and can grow here, and highlighted its “world-leading” Internet of Things (IoT) expertise.
Reports earlier in the year had suggested Vodafone was seeking job cuts as part of plan to save €1 billion by 2026.
In December, former CEO Nick Read stepped down amid rocky financials leading to the appointment of then-CFO Della Valle as interim CEO.
Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, had told ITPro at the time that the move was “no massive surprise”, with Read falling under pressure from displeased shareholders.
Vodafone UK confirmed that it was in talks to merge with Hutchinson’s Three (Three UK) in October 2022.
The deal would reportedly see Vodafone take 51% of shares in the resulting firm, which would provide for around 27 million joint customers.
At the time, Sky News reported that the deal would close by the end of 2022.
Vodafone told ITPro that merger talks are ongoing, and that it is convinced any merger with Three would benefit its UK customers.
This article was updated to include a statement from Vodafone.
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