Turner slashing Asia Pac workforce by 30%

Having radically restructured its EMEA business, Turner International is reorganising its Asia Pacific division along similar lines and cutting headcount by almost a third.

Steve Marcopoto (pictured), president and MD Turner International Asia Pacific, told staff about the changes today.

Turner said the job losses, which follow a review undertaken with management consultancy firm PWC, will come from a mixture of redundancies and not filling vacant positions.

The company is moving activities to the regions and away from its Hong Kong headquarters, decentralising operations in a similar manner to that already implemented in Europe.

Turner told TBI that the headcount reduction is underway, will take several months to complete and it cannot specify the actual number of job losses.

Confirming the structural change in a statement, the company said: “The new, leaner central structure means more efficiency, less bureaucracy and greater empowerment for local management in the company’s three regions of South Asia, South East Asia Pacific and North Asia.”

Marcopoto said the restructure was “tough but absolutely necessary” as his division strives to hit a goal of doubling regional annual revenues by 2020.

“We are most grateful for the service and commitment of those employees directly affected and will work to ensure that they are offered appropriate support through the transition and to find new opportunities,” Marcopoto said.

Since joining as Turner’s president of international from RTL in April last year, Gerhard Zeiler has aggressively sought to decentralise operations at the channels and content business, placing management power at a local level. The EMEA restructure, which also involved a 30% reduction in staff, saw decision making devolved to a handful of territory heads.

In Asia Pac activities will be divided across three regions post-reorganisation with Siddharth Jain heading up activity in South Asia, Phil Nelson in North Asia and Sunny Saha in South East Asia Pacific.