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Vodafone Group's Romanian unit is reportedly in negotiations over 300 redundancies as part of a wider reorganization.
Reports circulating in Romanian news outlets indicated that trouble is brewing at Vodafone's local operating company (OpCo), with rumors that around 300 jobs could go amid a wider reorganization of the business.
It seems that the Comunicatii Mobile website was the first to break the news that changes for Vodafone Romania are afoot. HotNews then picked up the story, also reporting that the operator has started collective redundancy negotiations with the Inspecția Muncii, or Labor Inspectorate, on around 300 positions.
Vodafone Romania emailed a statement to Light Reading that broadly confirms a reorganization is underway.
Figure 1: Vodafone Group's Romanian OpCo is reportedly in negotiations over 300 redundancies as part of a wider reorganization.
(Source: l_martinez /Alamy Stock Photo)
The Romanian OpCo said it is "undertaking a repositioning of the business to develop new areas of growth. Regrettably, that will result in the release of some employees, representing <5% of the company's positions, largely in commercial and support functions. Some of those affected will be retrained into other roles within the company and new positions will also be created in the coming months.”
Senior heads rolling
Comunicatii Mobile, which noted that the operator has around 3,700 employees, reported that the operator is specifically targeting its enterprise and public sector division, which could see some high-profile executives part company with Vodafone in July.
The news site named Cristina Stăiculescu (senior corporate communications manager), Laura Barbu (brand and marketing communication director), Florian Georgescu (head of fixed services), Natalia Chiriţescu (medium and large enterprises director) and Marius Motofei (business operations and public sector director) as among those who could be affected.
SOHO director Alex Băloi is also due to leave the company in August in what is said to be an unrelated move.
Citing unnamed sources, Comunicatii Mobile said most investment projects at the Romanian OpCo are on hold, and speculated this could mean the operator is considering buying or selling operations to accelerate its business development.
France-based Iliad and United Group were namechecked as parties that could be interested in a potential purchase.
Downward motion
Recently reported Vodafone Romania figures show the business has been in decline. For example, in the fiscal year to March 31, 2022, the OpCo reported revenue of €764 million (US$805 million), down from €801 million ($844 million) a year previously.
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Vodafone Group remarked at the time that all markets other than Romania in the "other Europe" division were able to increase revenue during the year.
In Romania, Vodafone competes with Orange, Telekom Romania and Digi. In 2021, Orange acquired the fixed-line services of Telekom Romania.
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— Anne Morris, contributing editor, special to Light Reading
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