In a briefing this afternoon, the company said that it would be cutting 850 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as well as disposing of 20 non-core or unprofitable units, seven of which are currently part of Arnold Worldwide. Around 66% of the job cuts will be in Europe, 26% in North America and 8% in the rest of the world.
Havas said the cuts will be concentrated in back-office functions and those not linked to client services. Around 200 will be linked to agency closures.
Havas identified 50 out of 350 companies that it said were "penalising" the rest of the group, and that they were mainly located in marketing services in Europe -- specifically the UK.
Havas said that it hopes the agency sell-off, which is to be overseen by former Euro RSCG Marketing Services CEO Iain Ferguson, will net around €50m (£34.85m) in cash for the company.
Havas has also promised that the senior management structure would be "lighter but more focused", as it revealed that it was shoring up senior management at the company by creating several new roles. These include a chief communications officer, Alain Cayzac, currently executive vice-president; a chief information officer, Elio di Pace; and, like WPP Group, a chief talent officer and a chief innovation officer, both yet to be named.
Havas chief executive officer Alain de Pouzilhac said that the aim of the reorganisation was to "dramatically improve performance" at the company, which saw a 19% fall in revenues over the first half of the year and today reported losses of €58m.
Euro RSCG is to become the only global integrated marketing communications agency for Havas, which hopes to make it the third biggest network in the world.
In the UK, EHS Brann will join Euro RSCG Worldwide, although the company said that no decision had been made about rebranding the agency. In the US, Brann will also become part of Euro RSCG.
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