Six Continents Retail to axe 90 at head office

Pub and restaurant group Six Continents Retail is to cut about 10% of jobs at its corporate headquarters.

A spokesman for the company today confirmed that 90 staff would be lost, about one-tenth of its head office and adminastrative staff.

But because of vacancies currently unfilled, redundancies would be held at 70, he added.

The staff cutbacks are mainly the result of the reduction in capital expenditure announced in December 2002. Six Continents said this would be reduced to £140m in 2003, down from £227m last year.

Most of the job cuts are in areas directly related to capital spending, such as human resources and training. Some jobs in finance will also go.

The cuts were not related to the planned demerger of Six Continents pubs from its hotels division. "One is looking for redundancies in any company, and this is precisely that thinking," said the spokesman.