Haleon slashes jobs as it aims to save £300m over next three years

Sensodyne toothpaste maker Haleon is planning sweeping job cuts as it approaches the first anniversary of its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The FTSE 100 firm, which was split off from pharma giant GSK last July, began briefing staff on redundancies this week as part of a consultation process that will last until August 25 and see some workers transferred to different roles while others will leave the following month.

The job losses form part of cost cuts aiming to save £300million over the next three years and, according to the company, will ‘help drive increased productivity’.

Haleon declined to say how many roles were on the chopping block but it is thought hundreds of jobs could be at risk.

The company currently employs more than 24,000 people globally.

A spokesman said that the company had ‘announced internally a number of changes across our global business this week’ to make Haleon ‘more agile’.

‘Any decisions that involve colleagues are not taken lightly, and as we enter a process of consultation in relevant markets, we are fully committed to supporting colleagues that may be impacted,’ the spokesman added.

Plans for job cuts, first reported by the Guardian newspaper, come days ahead of the first anniversary of Haleon’s debut on the London Stock Exchange on July 18 last year when it was formally demerged from GSK, formerly GlaxoSmithKline.

The newly independent company listed its shares at 330p each and despite hitting a record high of 358p in April are currently changing hands at 312.5p, 5.3 per cent lower than their starting price.

Haleon was created in 2018 as a joint venture between GSK and its US rival Pfizer, both of whom still retain large stakes in the business. 

Aside from Sensodyne, the company owns brands including Centrum vitamins and Panadol painkillers.

Pfizer said in early May that it would begin offloading its 32 per cent stake in Haleon, although the group has yet to sell any shares.

GSK, meanwhile, has already sold 2.5 per cent of its holding, leaving it with a stake of around 10.4 per cent.

The announcement of the sale came after Haleon’s results for the first quarter of the year fell short of expectations as its profit margins were squeezed by rising costs.

The company’s demerger formed a key plank of GSK boss Emma Walmsley’s  strategy to focus the pharmaceutical firm’s efforts more towards the development of new medicines and vaccines, and away from consumer health products.

But despite a series of regulatory approvals for new treatments, including for a vaccine to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the group’s shares have struggled and are currently 23 per cent lower than they were when Haleon made its debut.