Swedish telecom gear company Ericsson is relocating its India headquarters to a smaller office amid pressure on revenue from consolidation in the country’s telecom sector, which has pared the number of carriers and shrunk the employee base.
Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.
While Ericsson denied taking any such action, a senior company executive said on condition of anonymity that “Ericsson is right-sizing for efficiencies of its operations and vacating the existing building”.
Now, Ericsson’s India headquarters is spread over six floors in a building in Gurgaon developed by DLF, but an executive at the real estate major said the company is “shifting staff to a two-floored office measuring 100,000 sq ft in a nearby location in Cybercity”.
A spokeswoman for Ericsson India said the relocation is not related to any change in staff strength but is more to do with the need for renovation of the existing building.
“The length of time and extent of renovations required would impact the day-to-day working of our employees. We, therefore, took the decision to move to an office that is close to our customers,” the spokeswoman said in an email reply to ET’s query. Ericsson, which is expected to vacate the current premises in six months, has been under severe pressure in India and globally in the face of stiff competition from Huawei and Nokia and falling telecom spends, and has been cutting jobs amid losses.
