British phone group Vodafone said today it will cut 11,000 jobs over three years as part of a restructuring plan following a performance that new chief executive Margherita Della Valle deemed “not good enough”.

Della Valle says she wants to “simplify the organization to regain our competitiveness”, in an announcement of the 2022/2023 financial year results, which speaks of stagnant revenues at €45.7 billion.

Vodafone had announced in early December the departure of its previous chief, Nick Reid, after four years at the helm of the British telecommunications group, amid poor performance.

Della Valle had then assumed her duties temporarily, pending the ratification of her appointment last month.

Vodafone has been conducting a restructuring for years that has led it to focus mainly on Europe and Africa.

Last week, the company and Emirates Telecommunications (e&), which became the UK telco’s biggest shareholder a year ago, announced a “strategic partnership” deal.

The e& group, which over the past year has gradually increased its participation in the British company to reach 14.6% of the capital today, is officially described in an announcement as “Vodafone’s reference shareholder”.

In early May, media reports suggested an imminent £15bn merger between Vodafone and Hong Kong mobile holding company CK Hutchison in the UK.

Vodafone, which declined to comment on the news, said in October it was in talks to merge its operations in the country with Three UK, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, to join forces in 5G.

What Vodafone said about Greece

“The layoffs announced by the Vodafone group do not concern Greece, where the company continues to show positive results,” said sources at Vodafone Greece who were asked to comment on the statements by the head of Vodafone, Margherita Della Valle, that it will cut 11,000 jobs in three years. to simplify the telecommunications group.

In fact, the same sources refer to a relevant excerpt from the financial results of the group, where special mention is made of the good performance in the Greek market.

“Greece records very good performances and in fact in many areas is a bright example within the group. Indicatively, in the last quarter of the year Greece recorded one of the highest rates of increase in revenue from services, of the order of 4%. Specifically, revenues from services in Greece increased driven by higher revenues from roaming services, the addition of 138,000 customers with mobile contracts (in the last year), positive growth in corporate fixed-line customers, which was also supported by the wins of of the Public Sector in the projects of the Recovery Fund”, they say.

And they add “The main message coming from the new CEO of the group and the intention at Group level to make a new beginning, with fresh ideas and strategies that will allow the company to return to a new growth trajectory. This can only be good. This new principle also includes the very positive decision, according to which decision-making and the definition of commercial strategies and products are implemented where it is most reasonable, that is, in the markets themselves and not centralized in the group. This also explains staff changes and reductions at group level since there is no need for collegiate structures for decisions to be determined in each country. Also, a new beginning, for some large markets, indicates the change of strategies or consolidation of structures that have come from acquisitions or mergers, and this also explains the changes and declines in these countries.

“It is absolutely clear, they point out that Greece is not one of those markets that will be affected.”

Finally, they state that the changes announced by the Group CEO, namely the reductions planned at the level of human resources, over a period of three years, do not concern Greece, which, as we said, is an excellent example, while at the level of people, it is constantly adding new employees and specializations in cutting-edge sectors such as networks and IT, where at least another 50 new positions are already planned.