Mobile phone operator, Orange is to cut between 1,800 and 2,000 UK jobs in a drive to reduce costs. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that around 50 of the jobs are in Scotland . Other than saying the jobs were in administration rather than retail, she declined to provide further details.
The decision to downsize comes as a result of Orange's forthcoming merger with Internet provider Wanadoo, which was arranged earlier this year by parent company France Telecom.
The cuts will be achieved mainly through redeployment, non-renewal of temporary contracts and 'as a last resort' redundancies. Full details of the cuts will be announced in September.
Bernard Ghillebaert, chief executive of Orange UK said, "Specifics will be worked out over the next few months and a final structure in place by September, but the new Orange must be lean and agile and our cost base needs to be lower."
"Specifically, we will be 15 percent leaner, resulting in significant annual savings and a streamlined, more efficient organisation," he said.
Its decision to reduce the size of its British subsidiary comes as no surprise within the UK's struggling telecommunications industry, which has forced Vodafone, 3 and O2 all to implement belt-tightening initiatives within the last 12 months.
Orange is expected to compete with its rivals by launching a series of new products next month, which will see the mobile phone group use its own branding to take over Wanadoo's broadband provider service.
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