Salesforce cuts over 450 UK jobs as profit spikes

The UK arm of cloud-based software giant Salesforce cut more than 450 jobs in the year its profit jumped by over 70 per cent.

The London-headquartered division of the US group decreased its headcount from 3,427 to 2,964 in the 12 months to 31 January, 2024, newly-filed accounts with Companies House have revealed.

The new results also show Saleforce’s pre-tax profit jumped from £29.8m to £51.9m over the same period.

Its turnover also increased from £1.54bn to £1.68bn, according to the new accounts.

A statement signed off by the board said: “The group’s overall performance depends in part on worldwide economic and geopolitical conditions.

“The United Kingdom and other key international economics have experienced significant economic and market downturns in the past and are likely to experience cyclical downturns in the future which can result in falling demand for a variety of goods and services, restricted credit, poor liquify, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets, inflation, bankruptcies and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy.

“In addition, geopolitical and domestic political developments, such as existing and potential trade wars and other events beyond our control, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, could materially adversely affect our future sales and operating results.

“Based on current assumptions related to the extent to which the geopolitical conditions will affect the business going forward, the group expects its business sin fiscal 2025 to continue to grow.”

For the same financial year, the US-headquartered Salesforce Inc reported a revenue of $34.8bn, up from the $31.3bn it achieved in the prior 12 months.

In its annual report, co-founder, chairman and CEO Marc Benioff said: “It has been a year of transformation not only at Salesforce but across our industry.

“Companies are now looking to AI to increase productivity, build deeper customer relationships and achieve higher profitability.

“We believe that this is the single most important moment in the history of the technology industry.”