Hundreds of UK jobs will be cut and many moved outside London as part of a restructuring of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) globally, it has been announced.
9% of all UK staff will be affected by the change, and will enter a consultation period in January.
The wider Dentsu Inc., which has offices across the world, will be restructuring in Australia, China, Singapore, the UK, France, Germany and Brazil – laying off around 11% of staff in these markets, or 3% of its global workforce.
London-based DAN employs about 4,000 people in its UK office at Regent’s Place.
The 9% being stood down at DAN consists of both redundancies as well as the relocation of some “non-client-facing and functional roles” away from London.
The restructure was announced last night (December 16th) on the Japanese Stock Exchange. DAN revised its forecast operating profit down to ¥60.9bn (£4.2bn) for the year ending December 31st – a drop of 38.2% – while net profit was revised down to ¥6.2bn (£42 million) – 38.2% down.
DAN is set to simplify its business model into three areas – namely creative, CRM and media.
The company said: “These lines of business have been designed around client needs and will ensure we are set up to help clients win, keep and grow their best customers – by being data-driven, tech-enabled and idea-led.
“This will accelerate our ability to deliver integrated solutions to our clients and ensure our services are easier to navigate and set up for success in the mid-long term.”
In June, DAN initiated its restructure – having announced it in March – creating Dentsu X from the merger of 360i, Fetch, and ICUC.
Later in the year, following redundancies in APAC and beyond, it announced it would lose the ‘Aegis’ part of the Dentsu Aegis name.
