Telecom's fully-owned Australian subsidiary, AAPT said today it will close its call centre in the Sydney suburb of Glebe.The centre will be shut by November, with 80 remaining positions offshored to Manila - a grim way for some to begin Telecom's 201
Telecom's fully-owned Australian subsidiary, AAPT said today it will close its call centre in the Sydney suburb of Glebe.
The centre will be shut by November, with 80 remaining positions offshored to Manila - a grim way for some to begin Telecom's 2011 financial year, which starts today.
Following a string of similar moves (31 staff were made redundant in April, 205 over the second half of 2009), only one-third of AAPT's call centre operation remains in Australia. The company says the remaining staff are concentrated in higher-end technical and wholesale support.
Between them, AAPT and its parent company have offshored more than 1000 roles over the past two years, most of them call centres or back-office IT positions.
Bid to save $A27 million
At Telecom's May 27 investor day, Mr Broad said AAPT's revenue had declined 28% between its 2008 and 2011 financial years, driven primarily by a by a consumer services decline. (Telecom's 2011 financial year began today).
Mr Broad told analysts that offshoring consumer call centre positions would save AAPT $A27 million ($NZ31.75 million) by the start of Telecom's new financial year (that is, today - July 1).
The call centre offshoring is part of an aggressive cost-cutting drive that also includes a reduction in AAPT staff from 1637 in 2008 to 1044 in May.
Trimming staff numbers by 35% had saved reduced personnel cost by $A32 million, Mr Broad said.
Preparing AAPT for sale?
Including its purchase price at the height of the dot.com boom, Telecom has spent upwards of $A2 billion on AAPT, whose results have only recently scraped into the black. The division is now carried on its books with a value between $A400 million and $A500 million.
Asked on April 15 about persistent rumours that AAPT was on the block Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds called the Australian subsidiary "non-core" and said that "If an offer comes along that’s in the interest of shareholders we would give that serious consideration".
A June 14 Melbourne Age report quoted AAPT insiders who predicted the division would be sold by August.
