Liberty Global’s Sunrise plans to cut 200 jobs

Source: Sunrise

Liberty Global-owned’s Swiss telco company, Sunrise, has outlined plans to cut 200 jobs as part of an aim to streamline the company’s structures, following its merge with UPC in 2021. 

A variety of leadership positions will be cut by mid-January to the end of March 2024 at the latest, with reductions expected to lead to around 180 redundancies. Though, the majority of the redundancies will take place in January.

Recently speaking at the Morgan Stanley’s European Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in Barcelona, Liberty Global boss Mike Fries said that merging Sunrise and UPC into a single brand “was always going to briing about friction”. He explained the company was now about “halfway” through the integration with most of the “price-sensitive customers” now integrated.

Fries said that the HFC network reached 70% of the country and Sunrise had access agreements that takes it to 90% of the country. “I don’t see us building or rebuilding in Switzerland, “he said, with a hybrid strategy serving Liberty well.

Sunrise said functions without direct customer contact across all areas of the organisation will also be streamlined. But noted Sunrise shops and customer service with direct will not be the focus of these redundancies.

Commenting on the company’s staff reduction plans, André Krause, CEO of Sunrise, said: “Following the merger and integration we’ve moved our company strongly forwards and oriented it firmly towards the future. The many projects and measures that we’ve already implemented are leading us to streamline our corporate structure so that we can continue to increase our flexibility and competitiveness in the market and to build a foundation for stable growth in the coming years. I’m pleased that, in the event of redundancies and thanks to a high degree of cooperation with the employee representatives and the syndicom trade union, we’re able to offer a social plan that provides employees with more than just financial support.”