190 people leave finance business as part of Covid cost-cutting

Cheadle-based finance group Together has confirmed 191 people have left as part of a major restructure of the business.

The mortgage and secured loan provider said it “continued to perform strongly” ahead of lockdown but it then paused accepting new applications, provided forbearance on nearly one-quarter of its loan book and “took prudent steps” to make the business more resilient.

This led to a “thorough review of costs” and a consultation period with employees which resulted in the significant cut in staffing levels.

It has also accelerated its modernisation and transformation programmes, which includes introducing technologies and automating processes to make its operations more efficient.

Gerald Grimes, chief executive-designate of Together, said: “Together entered the crisis in a strong position and we reacted quickly to support our customers, protect our colleagues and enhance the future resilience of our business.

“Our early proactive actions, along with completion of TABS 4 and the refinancing of our revolving credit facility, has resulted in the group having undrawn facility headroom of over £850m with accessible liquidity of £264m at September 18, 2020.

“Combined with accelerating our modernisation and transformation programmes, I am confident Together is well positioned for the future.”

Together is also preparing itself for economic conditions “to remain challenging for some time”. It is mindful of rising unemployment and the effect this will have on customers’ abilities to maintain payments.

Grimes said: “We are shaping our business to meet our customers’ evolving needs, to make us more efficient and to help us play our part in supporting the UK’s economic recovery.”