British Gas owner Centrica to cut 5,000 jobs
British Gas owner Centrica has said that it will cut 5,000 jobs this year as it seeks to restructure its business model after coronavirus.
More than half of the cuts, which account for 20 per cent of its workforce, come from managerial positions.
Today’s announcement comes on top of 2018’s plans for 4,000 redundancies by this year.
Shares in the FTSE 250 firm dropped 3.9 per cent to 40.2 on the back of the news.
Centrica also announced a number of changes to its board, with Johnathan Ford joining as finance chief.
In addition, Sarwjit Sambhi and Richard Hookway, the chiefs of Centrica’s consumer and business divisions, will step down from the board today and will leave the firm by the end of July.
New chief executive Chris O’Shea said that the restructuring was a response to the “harsh reality that the firm had lost over half it’s earning in recent years”.
He added: “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”.
In recent years, the firm has been hit hard by the imposition of a price cap for energy suppliers, which has damaged its margins.
The current pandemic has further battered Centrica, which earlier this year cancelled its dividend and warned it would take a £100m hit due to the virus.