Reseller admits a “small handful” of staff have been laid off following back-office consolidation drive

DSGI Business has played down a recent round of job cuts at its large account arm, Equanet.

According to sources close to events, the giant reseller has laid off in the region of 20 staff from Equanet as it unifies back office systems across its three main offices.

However, Jerry Roest, managing director at DSGI Business, was keen to set the record straight.

He said that “less than a handful” of staff had departed following efforts to redeploy those affected.

“The effect of us unifying systems [across the Borehamwood, Bury and Surbiton offices] meant that a handful of roles in Surbiton were redundant in the areas of IS development and logistics,” Roest said.

“After notifying staff we entered into a consultation period and tried to redeploy as many as possible. Less than a handful were made redundant.”

Roest added that the redundancies weren’t part of a long-term programme.

“While that is happening, we are recruiting like crazy in the front office across all three sites,” he stressed.

“This is no more than a normal process by which all businesses operate and it is our expectation that our headcount will grow.”

DSGI Business acquired Equanet in August 2005 after the large account reseller’s venture capital backers decided to sell up. The group’s other two customer-facing units are PCWB and Mac Warehouse.