Rolls-Royce culls marketing team

Rolls-Royce, the engineering, aerospace and marine engines corporation, has made ten job cuts across its central marketing and corporate affairs department as part of a company restructure.

The marketing redundancies mainly affect middle-management marketers. Marketing director Richard Turner will not be leaving.

The news follows the company’s announcement in March this year that it is to make 6,000 people redundant over the next three years, at a cost of &£150m, following a dive in profits.

The company will axe 1,300 jobs at its energy and naval marine plant in Coventry. Rolls-Royce is planning to base its entire energy business in Montreal, Canada, where some of the work is already carried out. The company is consolidating its naval marine work in Bristol. About 43,000 people are currently employed by the company.

Rolls-Royce reported profits of &£436m for 2000, compared with &£368m for 1999. However, taking into account exceptional charges, profits were actually &£166m, reinforcing a profits warning issued last August.

The move comes despite Rolls-Royce’s record order book of &£13.1bn in 2000, an increase from &£11.5bn in 1999. Several high-profile defence and engineering contracts have also been announced recently.

Nobody at Rolls-Royce was available for comment as Marketing Week went to press.