Telus announced its second quarter earnings today and revealed its plans to cut 6,000 jobs globally, as part of a restructuring strategy aimed at driving efficiency and growth.
This announcement comes in conjunction with the company’s Q2 results for 2023, which, despite showing strong operational performance, revealed a significant decline in net income. Compared to the same period a year ago, net income in the quarter was down 61%, standing at $196 million, due to higher depreciation, amortization, interest, and restructuring costs.
“Our resilience and ability to embrace change and continuously evolve the way we operate are cornerstones of our Telus culture and will continue to fuel our future success. It is therefore with a very heavy heart that we are seeking to reduce 6,000 staff positions across our global footprint, representing approximately 4,000 reductions at Telus and 2,000 at Telus International, including offering early retirement and voluntary departure packages,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, in a statement on Friday.
“Given the scale of this program, we now expect incremental restructuring investments of up to $475 million in 2023. The program we are announcing today will yield expected cumulative annual cost savings of more than $325 million. While this will temporarily and modestly dilute our Free Cash Flow in 2023, importantly, it will support strong Free Cash Flow expansion in the years ahead, as well as the progression of our leading, multi-year dividend growth program.”
Telus reported total customer growth of 293,000, a second-quarter record, marking an increase of 46,000 over the previous year. Mobile phone net additions came in at 110,000 in Q2, the best since 2010, and record connected device net additions of 124,000. The company also boasted an industry-leading blended churn rate of 0.91% and average revenue per user growth of 1.8% (higher monthly bills essentially).
Yesterday, Telus-owned Koodo announced it was launching 5G plans, following in the footsteps of Virgin Plus and Freedom Mobile.
