LONDON, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Royal Mail Group announced Thursday that it plans to cut 2,000 management jobs as it struggles to adapt to the market while also suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Regrettably, we are also proposing a management restructure impacting around 2,000 roles," said Keith Williams, interim executive chair at Royal Mail Group, as the firm unveiled its reform plan to address the challenges.
Williams said the marketplace has changed quickly with "more parcels and fewer letters" in recent years, and "COVID-19 has accelerated those trends, presenting additional challenges."
To tackle the "immediate impact" of the pandemic, the group has set to save 130 million pounds (around 161.5 million U.S. dollars) in "people costs next year and flat non-people costs", alongside a reduction of about 300 million pounds (372.8 million dollars) in capital expenditures across the group over the next two years.
Releasing its adjusted results for the full year ending March 29, 2020, the firm reported the profit before tax with 275 million pounds (about 341.7 million dollars), down from 398 million pounds (about 494.6 million dollars) seen a year earlier.
Meanwhile, there will be no annual bonus for executive directors and Royal Mail executives in the financial year ending March 2020, according to the company.
Royal Mail Group employs around 162,000 people worldwide, with 143,000 in the Britain. Operating across 44 countries globally, it made the seventh largest contribution to Britain's economy among all British corporations last year, according to the group. Enditem
