| Locally based Vodafone are expected to start a savage cost cutting exercise this week in an attempt to cut overheads by 20%. 500 job losses are predicted at the Newbury headquarters, as back office systems are out sourced to IT specialists IBM and Hewlett Packard.
Vodafone are expected to show a loss of nearly £20 billion, when their full year results are announced this week. This loss is thought to be the largest ever made by a British company.
It is not known at this stage if the job losses are in addition to, or include other recent job losses at Vodafone. The impact on local unemployment is expected to be minimal because so many of the companies’ employees commute in from outlying areas like Swindon and Oxford.
There are also rumours that a selection of buildings on the massive campus at Shaw will be released onto Newbury’s burgeoning empty office property market as remaining staff are consolidated.
Vodafone recently vacated Woodlands, a large office building in Bartholomew Street, Newbury. This building has already been snapped up by another locally based organisation that is expected to take up occupancy in the autumn. | 
