However, Swift said the number of potential staff redundancies may well be far fewer than this. The staff affected by the consultation will come from the sales, marketing and new business teams. Swift has a total headcount of almost 140 staff.
John Webster, chief executive of Swift Group said: “We have built an infrastructure to meet the needs of a certain level of business which unfortunately is simply not sustainable in the current economic climate. Sadly, as a result, we have to consider reducing staffing in areas such as sales, marketing and new business processing.
“The market will recognise that we are one of the last lenders in our sector to be taking this step and we have worked hard to find a way to reduce the impact. We will be offering around twenty alternative permanent positions in other areas of the business which will hopefully reduce the overall number of staff potentially affected by filling those roles from within. Although consultation affects a large number of employees, we will be working to try to avoid the redundancies and, if redundancies do become necessary, to restrict the possible number of redundancies to around 25 people.
“It is with great regret that we make have to make this announcement, but I would assure intermediaries that they will see no change in the high service standards they expect and receive from Swift.”
