Slump in exhibition revenue cause of 82 job losses at NEC Group

The NEC Group has made 82 redundancies after cutbacks enforced by a dramatic slump in revenue from exhibitions.

Managers completed a 90-day consultation on Tuesday, after previously announcing that as many as 100 jobs could be cut.

The West Midland group, which runs the NEC, ICC, LG Arena and NIA, was forced into the cost-cutting exercise after seeing demand for exhibitions hit as people tighten their purse strings as a result of the recession.

Chief executive Paul Thandi said: “This has been a difficult and worrying time for many of our employees. However, these proposals were considered very carefully and the decision to make employees redundant was not taken lightly.

“The NEC Group is not immune from the downturn in the economy and we have seen a significant drop in revenues in some areas of our business, particularly exhibitions. As a business with a regional economic impact of £2 billion, supporting 29,000 jobs, it is critical that The NEC Group is in a strong position to endure this current economic crisis and emerge fighting fit to deliver the groundbreaking developments planned for our venues in the longer term.

“Ultimately, our aim is to safeguard employment as much as possible for the future – not only those employees directly employed by us today but also the many thousands of workers in the region who rely on our continued success as a business, now and in the future. During the consultation, employee and Unite representatives – and individual affected employees – contributed significantly to the development of many of the proposals and I would like to pay tribute to them all for their professionalism and dignity throughout this process.” 

A spokesman for the group said it had reduced the redundancies through reorganisation but said he understood it was still an “extremely significant number”.

The company announced to employees on April 16 and has since put a support programme in place to offer workers help to find new jobs, counselling and workshops on interview skills, managing emotions and financial information.