November 2008

Job cuts as Rightmove 're-focus'

LEADING property portal site Rightmove is shedding a fifth of its staff and scaling back its overseas business in a bid to cut costs.

Reports suggest the cost savings will be £5 million, with £1 million more to be spent on marketing of its core UK business to maintain or even increase Rightmove’s prime position and keep margins at the current level.

A ‘re-focusing’ of the business includes a reorganisation of the existing estate agency sales force and customer service teams into account management teams, each covering a region of the country.

Commercial director Miles Shipside said: “We are moving from a sales-oriented structure to an account management structure to allow all our capabilities to be delivered to individual member estate agents. We will be able to substantially increase our investment in consumer marketing during 2009 as a result of these changes. Some free-to-list sites have seen activity fall by up to 30 per cent since the middle of the year. Rightmove’s own site traffic has been far more robust, but we will not run the risk of our member agents missing out on reaching serious homemovers.”