Explorer wields the axe at Redsky

Explorer, the new owner of RedSky, the construction IT software group, is travelling around the company, office by office, swinging the axe and making serious cut-backs in headcount.

In each office, staff are allegedly being herded into one of two rooms. Those grouped in one room keep their jobs, while those next door are faced with a dramatic choice – walk now and get a better redundancy package or take your time and receive a minimal offer.

“Most opt for the latter and are out of the door within an hour,” said a source.

The tour started with a visitation to the Blackburn, Lancashire office, which houses RedSky’s largest software system, originally known as Mentor.

Visits to Cardiff and Hemel Hempstead will have been completed by the end of today, but staff in Crick only get to know their fate on Monday and those in Nottingham will be left hanging until Tuesday.

“It’s like seeing a bullet coming in slow motion,” said the source. “The trouble is that with Explorer having a very flat structure, with no directors or managers, there’s noone with any title to come and do the cutting. It’s a shoddy way to do things.”

Explorer is a Canadian-based IT group run by Jim McFarlane. He started the business 10 years ago. Before that McFarlane was a contractor and a quantity surveyor. Everyone in the Canadian operation works from home in a “virtual-type” operation.

McFarlane is said to have told Mark Chambers, RedSky’s managing director, to institute the job cutting in RedSky. When he declined, McFarlane’s response is reported to have been “so go then”. Chambers did just that, and Mike Aspinall has been promoted into Chambers’ former position.

Chambers’ two reasons for resisting are said to be that he felt that cutting staff numbers from 156 to 90 would ruin RedSky’s prospects and he was concerned at the effect on customers.

After reading about the earlier developments on www.contractjournal.com, Taylor Woodrow and Galliford Try are reported to have been concerned about the future prospects for the RedSky software they currently have in use, and to have called the software group for information.

“Customer communication has been non-existent,” said the source, “yet this is the software contractors use to pay their suppliers and operate other vital functions.”

When asked to comment, RedSky said: "We can't give you any information."