First Axes 1,100 Uk Bus Jobs In ￡55m Savings Plan

摘要

Firstgroup Plans To eliminate 1,100 jobs and save ￡55million at its UK Bus division by March 2010. This is part of a ￡200million cost reduction exercise across its global operations that will reduce its labour requirement by 3,500. Chief executive Sir Moir Lockhead says it intends to achieve half of these savings by June. It also is cutting UK rail overhead costs by ￡70million and in its North American bus and coach operations by ￡75million. These are the targets driving a business review that is cutting services at many of its regional bus companies and, so far, has created two centrally managed regional super companies, in West Yorkshire and East Anglia. The scale of the cuts emerged in March when.First published its preliminary financial results for 2008, showing a 2.1% increase in the number of passengers carried on its UK buses and a 7.3% rise in revenue. Against a deepening economic recession, it faces rising fuel costs in the coming year, a consequence of price-hedging agreements reached last year when global oil prices were rising.