Interoute, the European parent company of Spirit Telecom, is to shed 400 staff as part of a European-wide restructuring and withdrawal from the retail telecoms market. However, Mr David Ryan, managing director of European Interoute Telecommunications Group, said the job cuts and change of strategy would not affect Interoute's subsidiary, Spirit, in the Republic.
He said Interoute made the decision to pull out of the retail telecoms market for business and residential customers in nine of the 11 European countries in which it operates.
He said the group would instead concentrate on the wholesale telecoms market by selling capacity to other carriers and building a European fibre network.
"Markets no longer favour companies selling retail telecoms services," said Mr Ryan. "We will concentrate on the wholesale business and expect to hold on to 77 per cent of our revenues."
Some 400 jobs will be cut in the company's retail and marketing division. Mr Ryan said there may be opportunities for these staff to be transferred to other areas of the company.
Mr Ryan said the UK and Irish retail operations would not be affected by the cuts as they had almost achieved profitability. "We are in for the long-term play in both of these countries. The UK produces some £115 million sterling revenue," he said.
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