Proactive Investors - Vodafone has added Germany to the list of places where it is cutting jobs, with the mobile phone giant axing 1,300 full-time jobs there.
Administrative and management positions are predominantly affected, regional boss Philippe Rogge said in an interview. with Handelsblatt.
"If we want to finance our ambitions, we have to take this painful step," said Rogge, who took over in the country last July and is also a full Vodafone board member.
Rogge added that making Vodafone Germany leaner will help it compete better with its most important competitor (Deutsche Telekom (ETR:DTEGn)), he said.
Prior to this latest round of job cuts, Vodafone employed around 14,230 staff in the country, which has been a problem area for Vodafone for years with no growth and fierce competition.
Last month, the telecoms group said service revenue in Germany fell 1.1% in its third quarter, a performance interim chief executive Margherita Della Valle described as “simply not good enough.”
Shares in Vodafone are languishing near five-year lows due to a combination of minimal growth, high debts and seemingly no strategy to change the situation.
Nick Read, chief executive, departed last year with finance head Della Valle stepping up until a permanent successor is found.
Earlier this month, Vodafone said it would cut 1,000 jobs in Italy - almost a fifth of its total workforce there, with several hundred UK jobs going at the start of 2023.
In November Vodafone cut its annual profit forecast and announced a £1bn cost-cutting strategy.
Shares in Vodafone were little changed, down 0.3% at 89.5p.