Exclusive: Hundreds of jobs to go at Vodafone Newbury

Staff at company's headquarters put at risk as company 'simplifies business structure'

HUNDREDS of staff at Vodafone’s UK headquarters in Newbury are set to be made redundant.

The has learned that the telecommunications firm has placed staff at risk of redundancy and that employees, mainly in project management, managerial and functional roles, are affected.

Vodafone would not say exactly how many of its 4,500 staff at Newbury were at risk, but confirmed the number was in ‘the low hundreds’.

The roles at risk affect a limited number of frontline staff.

A Vodafone spokesman said: “We continually review our costs to ensure we have an efficient, sustainable and agile organisation.

“As a result, while we created hundreds of new roles within our UK-based customer services team last year, with more to follow this year, we are simplifying some of our business structures over the next couple of months.

“We will be working with all those affected to support them through this period.”

Last year, Vodafone axed around 250 staff as it cut part of its corporate functions department in an effort to refocus on its frontline team.

A source at Vodafone said the latest round of redundancies was rumoured to be higher than those made last year.

Question marks over the future of Vodafone were raised following the result of the EU referendum last year.

Following the vote to leave, a spokesperson said that the firm could not rule out the possibility of moving its London HQ to Europe in the wake of an exit from the EU, but said it had no plans to move the Newbury base.

“As we said before the referendum, we remain committed to supporting our UK customers regardless as to the outcome, now and in the future.”

A Vodafone spokesperson said again yesterday (Wednesday): “We remain fully committed to the UK, our UK customers and to Newbury.”