DHL is making some 60 staff redundant as well as abolishing a number of temporary posts and short term contracts. In total some 120 jobs are affected. There had been speculation that the number of redundancies could be as high as 250.
A spokesman said the redundancies were part of the integration process. The jobs are going right across the group at all levels – mainly in back office functions although some operational staff will be going.
The DHL business in the UK is made up of a number of organisations that were bought by parent Deutsche Post including Securicor Distribution, AEI and Danzas as well as the original DHL international express business.
The spokesman said there had been no redundancies when the merger of these operations originally took place a couple of years ago.
He also made it clear that the move was completely unconnected with the takeover of Exel by Deutsche Post which was completed on 13 December 2006.
In September last year, Chris Muntwyler was parachuted in to take over as managing director from John Hogan who left the company.
Mr Muntwyler was previously managing director for DHL Express Central Europe. He joined DHL in 1999 as country manager for Switzerland. Prior to that he spent 27 years with Swissair.
