Vodafone cuts 3,000 jobs as it targets further cost savings
Vodafone has cut 3,000 jobs across Europe over the past six months, the company revealed in its latest results for the first half of its 2027 financial year.
In the results published on Tuesday 10 November, the telecoms giant cited quick progress on its cost-cutting programme, noting that it expects to see a net reduction of European operating expenses of more than €200 million, thanks in part to widespread job cuts.
The company said that it had made 3,000 role reductions across Europe and shared operations, alongside a previously announced 2,300 job cuts in Germany.
Vodafone announced earlier this year that it aims to deliver over €2 billion annual gross savings in Europe and its shared operations by the end of its 2030 financial year.
To this end, it has made 11,000 job cuts in the past three years, and it said it has now identified initiatives that could further reduce its Europe and shared operations operating expenses by 20%.
Overall, the company increased revenue by 11.4% to €21.9 billion, driven by service revenue growth and in part by the consolidation of VodafoneThree.
Vodafone reported a loss of €3.6 billion, attributed to non-cash accounting charges including an impairment in Germany, primarily driven by adverse changes in interest rates, and a write-down of deferred tax assets in the UK following the buyout of the remaining stake in VodafoneThree.
“We have made a strong start to Vodafone’s new growth chapter, with organic service revenue increasing by 5.8%,” said Vodafone Group Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle.
“This included our best-ever growth in Vodafone Business, with a record performance in digital services as we focus on smart, secure and sovereign solutions for our B2B and public sector customers.”
“I am very happy about our overall Group performance, but Germany is not yet where it needs to be. We have a clear action plan in progress, which is structurally simplifying our German operations and improving customer satisfaction across all of our services,” she said.
VodafoneThree buyout and UK performance
In July this year, Vodafone announced that it had completed the buyout of VodafoneThree to own 100% of the company, which is now the UK’s largest mobile operator.
Following this consolidation, the company aims to achieve £0.8 billion annual savings through driving synergy between this new business unit and its existing operations.
It said its targets are driven by further savings as its network build completes and it benefits further from network rationalisation.
The UK accounts for 22% of Vodafone’s service revenue, driven in part by the completion of the merger with Three. In the last six months, mobile service revenue increased by 12.2% and fixed service revenue increased by 3.2%.
The company lost 62,000 mobile contract customers in the first half of its 2027 financial year, but said that 40,000 of these were due to disconnecting low-value business SIMs.
The company’s prepaid brands added 166,000 customers over the period, and Vodafone increased its broadband customer base by 76,000, adding 54,000 fixed wireless access customers.
