Energy services firm Centrica to cut thousands of jobs

British multinational utility company and British Gas owner Centrica has announced plans to cut around 5,000 jobs, which represents around 20% of its global workforce.

The latest move comes as part of the company’s restructuring efforts in the wake of the downturn caused as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than half of the redundancies are expected to come from management teams, according to the company.

These job losses follow 4,000 planned redundancies announced in February 2018 in the wake of declining operating profits.

Centrica Group chief executive Chris O’Shea said: “Since becoming chief executive almost three months ago, I’ve focused on navigating the company through the Covid-19 crisis and identifying what needs to change in Centrica.

“We’ve learnt through the crisis that we can be agile and responsive in the most difficult conditions and put our customers at the heart of our decision making. However, I believe that our complex business model hinders the delivery of our strategy and inhibits the relentless focus I want to give to our customers.

“We have great people, strong brands that are trusted by millions and leading market positions, but the harsh reality is that we have lost over half of our earnings in recent years. Now we must bring focus by modernising and simplifying the way we do business.”

Centrica currently has around 27,000 employees, with 20,000 based in the UK.