Rolls-Royce said it is building a company “fit for the future”.
UK aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is to axe up to 2,500 jobs worldwide in an effort to cut costs.
The purge represents almost 6% of its global workforce of roughly 42,000 people.
The 2,000 to 2,500 job cuts are “next phase of its multi-year transformation”, Rolls-Royce said in a statement published on Tuesday.
“We are building a Rolls-Royce that is fit for the future,” CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said in the statement. “That means a more streamlined and efficient organisation that will deliver for our customers, partners and shareholders.”
The restructuring unveiled on Tuesday involves bringing together the company’s engineering, technology and safety departments “into a single team”.
Rolls-Royce returned to profit in 2021 after making a huge loss the previous year, when it suffered heavily from the COVID-19 pandemic and its colossal impact on the aviation sector.
The group then fell heavily into the red again in 2022.
In August of this year, the engine manufacturer published a net profit (group share) of £1.2 billion (€1.38 billion) for the first half of the year, compared with a loss of £1.6 billion for the same period a year earlier, which was due in particular to a heavy devaluation of foreign exchange contracts as the dollar soared.
Erginbilgic, who took over the reins of Rolls-Royce at the beginning of 2023, detailed an ambitious transformation plan at the beginning of the year, including a strategic review to prioritise investments “towards the most profitable opportunities”.
