Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson said today it was to remove the bulk of its activities from a facility in central England with the loss of about 700 jobs.
The firm said it was withdrawing its research and development and global service delivery activities from its operation in Coventry as part of its ongoing global cost cutting measures.
The move is expected to be implemented by the middle of 2010, it said, adding it was likely that after the changes, the Coventry facility would no longer be viable.
"We have to work continuously to increase efficiency and lower our cost base whilst ensuring we deliver solutions designed to meet our global customers' needs," said Mats Granryd, head of Market Unit North Western Europe at Ericsson.
Ericsson said the move would not affect its local customer activities in Britain.
Staff in Coventry handle research and development for part of Ericsson's network infrastructure portfolio and the global service delivery centre provides services for a number of products.
The firm said these operations would be moved to countries "where there are already significant scale and product synergies", while research and development for new products would move to countries with a lower cost base.
Reuters