Staff cuts at Work24 leaves marketing chief out of work

Simon Ward, the marketing director of Work24, the online joint venture between ScottishPower and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has been made redundant following the utility company’s decision to scrap its plans to sell telecoms and financial services.

Ward, who has been with the company for less than four months, does not have a job to go to.

Work24’s entire staff has been made redundant. A spokeswoman says: “The two companies are trying to redeploy the staff within their organisations.”

Work24, a £70m joint venture, was set up in February last year to enable small and medium-sized businesses to harness the commercial benefits of the Internet by offering various products and services.

Ward says: “I have a lot of options at the moment, but will have to wait and see. Both ScottishPower and RBS are making a range of positions available.”

Ward, has been in marketing for 15 years. He was previously a director at Telecom Express and Clarke Hooper Consulting marketing agency group, both owned by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO (MW November 9).

ScottishPower has also dropped its scheme of providing cheap telecoms through Thus, its telecoms subsidiary. The initiative was rolled out as a pilot scheme in autumn last year.

Scottish Power floated Thus last year, but still owns 50.1 per cent of the company.

Recommended

Five-penny fruit is a rotten idea

Marketing Week

A recent lunchtime promotion by Benjys turned out to be a PR banana skin for the sandwich chain. The company brought in ten tonnes of bananas to sell in a week for just five pence each. But, far from persuading City types to buy into a good deal, many of the banking brigade were suspicious […]

Jaguar poised to hand global account to Y&R

Marketing Week

Senior executives at Jaguar are actively considering handing most, and possibly all, of the company’s $125m (85m) global creative advertising business to Young & Rubicam (Y&R). The WPP agency has already been briefed to create the advertising campaign for the X-Type model, which is to be launched at the end of May (MW January 18). […]

Telegraph plans series of TV ads to push promotions

Marketing Week

The Daily Telegraph is using a newsagent’s shop as the setting for a new series of TV ads with the strapline ‘To a T’. The ads will feature a regular cast of characters, including a newsagent, and will be used to highlight specific promotions or special editorial features in the Daily Telegraph. The campaign marks […]