Indo group to shift jobs to South Africa

INDEPENDENT NEWS & MEDIA (INM) is set to relocate back-office jobs from Ireland to South Africa as part of the newspaper publisher's plans to cut costs and improve profits.

The Tony O'Reilly-headed company, which yesterday reported pre-tax profits of almost €155 million, a 20% increase on the previous year, said its Irish operating margins were high but needed to be higher.

INM's Irish operations delivered margins of 19.9% and operating profits of €75.3 million last year. This compared with margins of 20.5% in Australia and New Zealand, 14.7% in South Africa and 8.6% in Britain. Chief operating officer Gavin O'Reilly said the group's restructuring programme, which was announced in December, would eliminate what he called "cost anomalies".