Romtelecom to reduce staff by further 1,400, focus on internet and TV while keeping an eye on costs

Telecom company Romtelecom will sack up to 1,400 people this year, part of its previously started cost reduction program. “Our long term concern is to have a viable, strong and active company. These projects involve not only a drop in the number of employees. However, many of the projects we consider include a staff reduction, considering that our aim is to do more with fewer resources,” said Yorgos Ioannidis, general manager of Romtelecom. The company sacked 1,000 employees last year and reached a staff of 9,100 in September lats year. “We currently have several thousands of options of products in our IT system and we plan to massively reduce them in 2011, firstly to help customers choose easily, but also to reduce the cost of maintaining all these products. This will obviously mean we'll need fewer people to handle these products,” Ioannidis went on. The company will focus on broadband internet and TV services. Romtelecom is working on a TV platform which will soon be launched and plans to expand online options. The telecom company started over 20 projects on all its main business lines, from sales to call centers and stores. These projects will be carried on until 2013. “Costs have become the maximum priority, given the customers' reduced purchasing power and expectations to have low prices and quality services. We're running on an extremely competitive market, with some of the lowest prices in Europe on communication services […],” Ioannidis continued. Greek OTE is the main shareholder in Romtelecom, as well as in mobile communication company Cosmote and in the Germanos retail chain. Deutsche Telekom owns a 30 percent stake in OTE. Romtelecom posted an operating loss of EUR 13.9 million in the third quarter of 2010 and its revenues dropped by 6.5 percent, to EUR 181.5 million, because of austerity measures and rising unemployment. Romania plans to sell its 45.9 percent share package in Romtelecom and hopes to get EUR 1 billion from a potential deal. The state will either sell its share package in Romtelecom, or list it on the stock exchange. OTE, the majority shareholder in Romtelecom, has already been asked to file an offer for the remaining share package, which was due by the end of 2010. editor@romania-insider.com