Kennedys to cut up to 72 support jobs

A spokesman confirmed that the consultation has begun this week, but declined to confirm the exact number of roles that are at risk other than to say that “five or six dozen” people were in consultation.

It is understood that the aim is to consolidate the team, which currently works across four offices - London, Sheffield, Chelmsford and Maidstone. While “five or six dozen” roles have been put on notification the final number of redundancies could be much smaller to reflect a reshaped finance department.

Kennedys’ growth has been significant over the last five years with the firm’s turnover nudging up following a series of acquisitions and lateral hires. At the latest year-end turnover broke through the £100m barrier, up from £96.8m in 2010-11 to £109m (23 May 2012).

The firm is looking to tighten up support systems to prevent duplications between offices. Over the last year the firm has invested heavily in internal IT systems to improve efficiencies.

Meanwhile, there has been investment in growth domestically and internationally with office openings in Dublin through a merger with Dublin associate firm O’Hare O’Connor Walshe to create Kennedys Ireland (1 June 2011 ). This came just months after a merger with Portugal-based associate office Almeida & Athayde to launch Kennedys Portugal (2 March 2011).

Last week it emerged that the firm has been talking to aviation boutique Gates & Partners about a possible tie-up (12 October 2012), although talks are at a preliminary stage.

News of the redundancy talks was first reported by RollonFriday.