Exertis UK has reopened its voluntary redundancy programme at the request of some employees, IT Channel Oxygen understands.
The former distribution giant concluded a six-week staff consultation process on 23 January, after announcing plans to aggressively cut headcount in December.
At the time, it said it would move forwards as an “independent specialist”, with its focus said to be on retail and gaming.
Despite this representing arguably the UK IT channel’s largest corporate downsizing event in recent memory, Exertis UK reopened its voluntary redundancy programme last week, multiple sources told us. This was apparently at the request of employees.
One employee told us the voluntary redundancy window closed at 2pm this afternoon.
At the same time, multiple sources have heard that MD Jon Sutherland may have left the business – although officially we understand he is on “personal leave”. Sutherland took the helm in December after the distributor parted ways with almost an entire layer of top execs.
We were unable to reach Sutherland for comment ahead of publication.
“I’m hopeful something can be kept”
Exertis UK’s post-consultation headcount is said to have stood at around 180.
That’s higher than the circa 130 slated in its original proposal, but a small fraction of its 1,200-strong pre-restructuring workforce.
Exertis UK was forced to downsize in the wake of its acquisition by international private-equity house AURELIUS.
In a statement on 26 January, Exertis UK said “fewer than 400” of its employees faced involuntary redundancy following the conclusion of its consultation process.
If that total seems low, it’s worth noting that the distributor was factoring in voluntary redundancies and the circa 200 employees that transferred to Evo as a result of its sale of Exertis Supplies.
One Exertis UK employee we spoke to said they were concerned by the lack of communication with staff.
“If I’m honest, I’m hopeful something can be kept but I’m increasingly worried about the lack of communication currently,” they said, talking under the condition of anonymity.
Exertis UK declined to comment further today.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
