British telecoms giant Vodafone has today announced it will cut 11,000 jobs over the next three years as new chief executive Margherita Della Valle seeks a “simpler” organisation.
“Our performance has not been good enough,” Ms. Della Valle said alongside news of flat annual revenue at the group.
The 11,000 jobs to be axed represent more than 10% of Vodafone’s global workforce, which stood at 104,000 staff last year.
“To consistently deliver, Vodafone must change,” Ms. Della Valle said. “We will simplify our organisation, cutting out complexity to regain our competitiveness.”
Ms. Della Valle was appointed CEO on a permanent basis at the start of May after five months as interim boss.
Vodafone’s announcement follows the axing this year of tens of thousands of jobs across the global tech sector by some of the leading players in the industry.
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Ms. Della Valle’s predecessor Nick Read stepped down in early December after a four-year tenure marked by a steep fall in the company’s share price.
He left with Vodafone in talks over merging its U.K. operations with rival Three U.K., owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison.
Media reports say a deal worth £15 billion ($18.7 billion) is close to completion.
Vodafone also reports that group revenue stood at 45.7 billion euros in its financial year to the end of March 2023, almost flat compared with 2021/22.
It added that net profit surged to 11.8 billion euros from 2.2 billion, reflecting its part-disposal of the European mast division, Vantage Towers.
“We will be a leaner and simpler organisation, to increase our commercial agility and free up resources,” the company said.
It announced, “11,000 role reductions planned over three years, with both HQ and local markets simplification”.
Following the announcement, shares in Vodafone dropped 2.9 per cent to 87.42 pence at the start of trading on London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was slightly higher overall.
Vodafone currently has more than 300 million mobile customers in Europe and Africa.
But the Vodafone Group last year transferred its 70% majority shares in Vodafone Ghana to Telecel Group, in a deal described as an all-cash transaction.
It is still not clear how much cash Vodafone walked away with in the Ghana deal, but regulators in Ghana said they are satisfied with the deal, as the buyer has settled its financial commitments to the regulator and is also said to have shown evidence of its ability to handle the Ghana operations. Norvan Report
