Pink has confirmed that 28 ‘at risk’ redundancies are taking place within support areas and through the withdrawal of its direct-to-consumer arm. The announcement follows 34 redundancies in February this year with around 25 of those from the packaging side of the business.
Tony Jones, managing director of Pink, expressed regret over the job losses but said they were necessary to ensure that the business could move forward. He added that parent company Skipton Building Society may aid in support areas but not in sales processes.
Jones said: “Our direct-to-consumer arm was taking up too much managerial time for too little return. We had to make the decision to focus on our core face-to-face intermediary business in order to streamline ourselves for the future.”
Dev Malle, sales director at Pink, added: “The redundancies are regrettable but we have to face the future. We have had a record month in terms of appointed representative applications and have geared the majority of our staff towards our sales and marketing operations.”
Thomas Reeh, chief executive of Midland-based brokerage The Black & White Group, sympathised with Pink. He said: “Clearly redundancies are a hard thing to have to do; it’s a clear indication that it’s still tough for players out there.
“It has to do the right thing for its business and sometimes that leads to tough decisions being made. Business in our direct-to-consumer arm is booming and we are currently looking at employing in the region of 40 staff.”
