According to reports, manufacturer Rolls-Royce is to give each of its 42,000 employees 150 shares in the company – worth approximately £700.
An internal memo to staff confirmed this news. The shares are set to be given out in September 2024, with workers in the UK reportedly unable to sell them for three years, after which they will be taxable, unless they are held for five years.
On 1 August, Rolls-Royce announced its financial results for the first half of 2024. It revealed an underlying operating profit of over £1.1 billion, up from £673 million in H1 2023.
In response to these results, Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic commented: “Our transformation of Rolls-Royce into a high-performing, competitive, resilient and growing business is proceeding with pace and intensity.
“We are expanding the earnings and cash potential of the business in a challenging supply chain environment, which we are proactively managing. We are on track to deliver our mid-term targets.”
In the aforementioned staff memo, the company said: “Our strong first-half results and the progress we are making on our transformation have been made possible thanks to the hard work and action of our people.”
Erginbilgic echoed this sentiment, telling staff: “These results have been made possible thanks to your hard work and our collective actions. You are making the difference. It is therefore important that you share in our success.”
According to the company website, Rolls-Royce employs 24,000 people in the UK. It’s reported that 13,700 of these roles are based at its Civil Aerospace sites in Derby and 3,400 are within its UK Defence business in Bristol.
In October 2023, Rolls-Royce announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs globally in order to make the company “more efficient and effective”.
Since then, there has been more positive news for the company. In March 2024, it announced a £55 million investment to be split between its operations in Derby and Dahlewitz in Germany. A total of 300 jobs are expected to be created as a result of this, around 200 of which are set to be based in Derby.
According to the ONS Business Register and Employment Survey, the manufacturing sector accounted for 16.2% of jobs in Derby in 2022, employing 22,000 of the city’s residents.
