Rolls Royce to axe 4,600 jobs in restructuring push
by Robert Stevens, The Associated Press
The British plane engine producer employs 26,000 people in the U.K., where around 3000 of the cuts will occur
LONDON—British plane engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce said Thursday that it plans to cut 4,600 jobs over the next 2 years as part of a major restructuring effort.
Around 3,000 of the cuts will affect U.K. employees, particularly at a site in the English city of Derby. Rolls-Royce currently employs 26,000 people in the U.K., almost half of its total workforce worldwide.
Frank-Martin Hein, spokesperson for Rolls-Royce, said that up to 2,000 redundancies could be made this year and that mostly support and management roles will be cut.
The company said Thursday it wants to save 400 million pounds (US$537 million) over the next two years to sustain an increase in profits.
While Rolls-Royce saw a 25 per cent rise in profits in 2017, it has issued a series of profit warnings in recent years, and Rolls-Royce is struggling to recoup the costs of long term investments. Since 2010, the company has invested over 11 billion pounds ($14 billion), a substantial portion of which was devoted to researching and developing a new engine for the Boeing 797.
“These changes will help us deliver over the mid- and longer-term a level of free cash flow well beyond our near-term ambition of around 1 billion pounds by around 2020,” said CEO Warren East.
