Serco to axe 500 jobs in shake-up (From Daily Echo)

Serco to axe 500 jobs in shake-up

6:52pm Friday 27th January 2012 in Hampshire Business

HAMPSHIRE based prisons to defence giant Serco is to chop 500 UK jobs as part of a shake-up in the way it provides back-office services to public and private sector organisations worldwide.

The outsourcing group said most of the job losses will fall at the company's office in Hook, near Basingstoke.

Elsewhere, Serco unveiled a new £55 million contract with the British Army, starting in April, to provide training and support to military personnel prior to deployment on operations around the world.

Serco, which employs 100,000 staff worldwide including 35,000 in the UK, has previously warned that its divisions in the UK and US were facing ''challenging conditions'' in the face of central and local government cutbacks.

Almost half of sales already come from outside the UK.

The company, which runs four prisons in the UK and London's Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, reported a 10 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £111.8 million in the six months to June 30.