Software giant to shed 200 posts

Sage is based at a purpose-built site in Newcastle

Tyneside-based software giant Sage is to shed 200 jobs across its 23 offices in the UK.

The firm, which has its headquarters in Newcastle, supplies business software to small and medium sized companies and employs 14,500 people worldwide.

It has reported a 14% boost in annual profits to £139.2m, but said it had to continue to control costs.

Paul Stobart, managing director of Sage UK and Ireland, said there would not be any compulsory job losses.

Mr Stobart said: "As all businesses are at the moment, we're doing everything that we can to keep costs to a minimum and in April we offered our UK employees the opportunity to apply for voluntary redundancy.

"Across our 23 offices in the UK, 200 people will be leaving the business as a result of this incentivised voluntary redundancy programme.

"Looking forward, it's business as usual, and we'll be working with our teams to make sure that we do everything we can to continue to provide our customers with a great experience, across all of our products and services."

The company, which has major sites in Winnersh, Berkshire, and Manchester, was founded in 1981 in a local printing works by entrepreneur David Goldman.

He developed software to automate the print estimating process of his business.