March 8, 2016 9:45 pm
LONDON:
British energy supplier npower, a unit of Germany’s RWE, said on Tuesday it
will axe 2,400 jobs after posting an annual loss on fierce competition, sliding
sales and operational problems.
The
company announced in a statement, published alongside RWE’s 2015 results, that
it suffered an “extremely disappointing” performance and will shed about one
fifth of its UK workforce in a new cost-cutting drive.
“By
2018, around 2,400 fewer people will support npower overall through a mix of
those who work directly and indirectly for npower,” said Paul Coffey, chief
executive of RWE npower.
The
division meanwhile slumped into the red last year with an operational loss of
£99 million ($141 million, 128 million euros). That contrasted sharply with a
profit of £183 million in 2014.
“This
reflected . . . a high level of competition in both the domestic and business
customer markets, reduced sales volumes and the continuing cost of domestic
customer service system and process problems that began in 2013,” the group
said.
The
number of customer accounts slid seven percent to 4.77 million by the end of
last year.
In
December 2015, the group agreed with British energy regulator Ofgem to pay £26
million in a vast customer redress package after failings with its billing and
complaint handling.
The
two-year recovery plan is meanwhile aimed at delivering a “robust business”
built on lower costs, simplicity and high-quality customer service, it said.
“Npower
takes its responsibilities to its employees seriously and will consult fully
with affected employees and with unions over its proposals for the future of
the business,” it added.
However,
trade unions blasted the move.
“These
huge job losses will come as a devastating blow to the workforce,” said Dave
Prentis, general secretary at Unison.
“Npower
has been in trouble for some time thanks to poor decision-making at the very
top, and workers are now paying the price.
“The
company’s failure to invest properly in new systems has left it with one of the
worst customer service records in the business.”
The
German group’s two main businesses in Britain—comprising npower and RWE
Generation—made a combined operating loss of £154 million.
RWE
npower employs a total of 11,500 people in Britain. There will be no job cuts
at any of the division’s power stations. AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment