Vodafone, the British mobile phone company, announced plans to layoff 11,000 employees over the next three years as new CEO Margherita Della Valle wants a “simpler” organization.
“Our performance has not been good enough,” Della Valle remarked in response to the group’s flat annual revenue.
After Google, Facebook, Amazon, Dell and other tech companies, Vodafone is expected to cut 11,000 jobs, or more than 10% of its global workforce of 104,000 employees last year.
“To consistently deliver, Vodafone must change,” Della Valle said in a statement.
“We will simplify our organization, cutting out complexity to regain our competitiveness,” stated Della Valle, who was named CEO on a permanent basis at the beginning of May after serving as interim CEO for five months.
Vodafone to lay off 11000 employees in the next 3 years, the news comes on the heels of the axing of tens of thousands of jobs in the global IT sector this year, notably by Facebook parent Meta, as rising prices damaged the economy.
Della Valle’s predecessor, Nick Read, stepped down in early December following a four-year tenure that saw the company’s share price plummet dramatically.
He departed while Vodafone was in talks with rival Three UK, which is owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison.
According to media sources, a deal for £15 billion ($18.7 billion) is nearing completion. Vodafone said on Tuesday that group revenue was 45.7 billion euros in the fiscal year ending March 31, nearly flat compared to 2021/22.
“We will be a leaner and simpler organization in order to increase commercial agility and free up resources,” the company announced on Tuesday.
“11,000 role reductions planned over three years, with both HQ and local market simplification,” it said.
Vodafone, which has over 300 million mobile users in Europe and Africa, is focusing aggressively on accelerating the implementation of 5G in the United Kingdom.
It is counting on the combination of its UK operations with Three to bring internet to rural towns and small companies.
The rollout of speedier 5G connection has been hindered by Britain’s ban on Huawei participating in the technology.
Following Tuesday’s developments, Vodafone shares fell 2.9 percent to 87.42 pence at the start of trade on London’s FTSE 100 index, which was marginally higher overall.
At the end of 2022, Vodafone announced a landmark agreement with investment firms GIP and KKR to construct a joint venture in which it will retain a controlling ownership in Vantage Towers.