'Up to 300' UK heads to roll at Brit IT services firm Allvotec, with 200 jobs offshored to Bulgaria in cost-cutting drive

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do...

British IT services provider Allvotec will cut "up to 300" jobs from the UK, offshoring some to Bulgaria in a push to reduce costs.

An internal email sent to staff last week and seen by The Register said that cuts come as part of a broader restructuring of the business. "The last couple of years have been challenging from a business performance perspective and we need to transform and change how we operate," chief exec Glen Williams wrote. "We therefore need to review every aspect of our business from a cost and efficiency perspective and make some difficult decisions in order to take the company forward.

"We anticipate that this initiative will result in a reduction of up to 300 roles in the UK across our permanent and contractor base."

Allvotec currently employs about 1,500 staff in the UK. All IT staff in the company's headquarters in Northampton, as well as its scheduling teams in Manchester and Aston will be axed, according to a source who spoke to The Reg privately.

About 200 roles will be offshored to Bulgaria, according to Williams.

Over the years, Allvotec, the freshly rebranded name for Daisy Partner Services, has gobbled up several rival firms, bloating its staff numbers. After going private in January 2015, it took over the UK arm of comms integrator Damovo, which then employed 271 people. It followed up by purchasing Calyx Managed Services' break-fix division for £3.75m a few months later.

Later that year, it took on tech services outfit Phoenix IT Group, bringing its total combined staff to 1,400. A year later, the company bought comms and tech integrator Alternative, which employed 600 people at the time, for £165m. Allvotec's recent acquisition of ISG added 70 staff and office space in Sofia to the company's books.

In response to our inquiries, an Allvotec spokesperson sent a link to a cheery interview with Williams, where he clarifies that everything is going to be hunky-dory. "Part of our rationale for buying ISG was their capabilities in the networking space, but also their phenomenal capabilities and team in Bulgaria," Williams said.

"So we've looked at it, and – yes – it's factually correct that up to 300 roles have been put at risk, but in excess of 200 of those roles are being replaced in Bulgaria. It's been part of our plan from the start, and we've just taken a lease on a bigger facility over there. We're going to have a state-of-the-art service desk, [network operations centre] and UC capability. Some of our back office functions – IT and finance etc – will also be delivered out of Bulgaria."

Allvotec told The Register: "We are continuously transforming our business operations to help meet changing customer requirements, economic and market demands – the recent acquisition of ISG Technology gives us new technology, capabilities and services, so we will be moving around 200 roles to our new, expanded facility in Sofia, and at the same time improving our on-shore presence in Northampton by consolidating facilities across the UK." ®