Intu cuts head office jobs as sector's problems continue

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 26, 2019

Shopping centre owner is set to make a number of head office employees redundant after seeing a slowdown in new lettings as a result of the uncertainty in the UK economy.

Now under the leadership of Matthew Roberts, who joined as chief executive officer at the end of April, Intu has leading shopping centres in the UK and Spain, including Intu Metrocentre and Intu Trafford Centre.

The company has been hit by the recent wave of CVAs, a form of insolvency used by several national retail chains over the past year to close underperforming stores.

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This led to a decline in net rental income from £460m in 2017 to £450.5m last year, whilst occupancy levels fell from 97% to 96%, announced Intu in its financial report in February.

In addition to selling a 50% interest in intu Derby to repay some of its debt, the company is now looking to cut a number of jobs as a way to reduce costs.

A source familiar with the matter told Property Week on Thursday: “The majority are head office staff but staff across the business are being consulted. 

“No front-line centre staff will be affected. There is no requirement to report [the job cuts] to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy or for collective consultation, which shows that it is a relatively small overall number.”

Businesses are required to notify the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy if they are making more than 20 jobs cuts in a 90-day period. 

Intu employs around 2,600 staff in the UK.