Vodafone Germany Confirms 2,000 Job Losses, Amid European Restructuring

Vodafone continues to reshape its European operations, as part of the “portfolio right-sizing” plan of CEO Margherita Della Valle.

Vodafone Germany announced a “transformation program” to save €400m (£343m) in costs over the next two years, will include 2,000 roles being axed. This represents the loss of 13 percent of the 15,000 workforce.

This comes on top of the 900 jobs losses at Vodafone Germany in 2023, as the mobile giant continues to aggressively restructure its European operations.

Job losses

Vodafone Germany said that it is seeking to make itself even simpler, faster, and leaner and over the next two years, and is seeking to deliver better interaction options and simpler products and services for customers.

Cost reductions will result as it will dismantle complex structures as well as modernise network elements and IT systems.

This will come at a financial impact of around 400 million euros over the next two years, and the loss of around 2,000 jobs.

Some roles will be relocated and others will be affected by automation that is expected to increasingly perform manual tasks.

Vodafone Germany will focus on growth areas such as the cloud and IoT business as well as customer-related positions, especially in the corporate customer sector.

Downsizing, right-sizing?

The changes in Germany reflect the three-year “new roadmap” of Vodafone Group chief executive Margherita Della Valle that began in May 2023 with the axing of 11,000 jobs in the UK and Europe.

It is understood that the 2,000 job losses at Vodafone Germany are part of that 11,000 role reduction announcement.

There have been significant “right-sizing” moves for Vodafone in Europe – with the most notable being the June 2023 announcement that Vodafone UK and the Chinese owner of Three UK (CK Hutchison) had finally agreed the long touted merger of their UK mobile operations.

But in January this year, the UK’s competition watchdog had announced a Phase One investigation of Vodafone UK’s merger with Three UK.

And last week the CMA signalled it had concerns the merger will result in a ‘substantial lessening of competition’ and higher prices for consumers, and gave both operators just five working days to provide “meaningful solutions” to its concerns.

Another major change for Vodafone in Europe came last November, when it exited the Spanish market, after agreeing to sell Vodafone Spain to UK-based telecoms investment firm Zegona Communications for $5.3 billion.

And then in March 2024, Vodafone reached a “binding agreement to sell 100 percent of its Italian operations (aka Vodafone Italy) to Swisscom AG” for €8bn in cash.