Orange UK, the British mobile operator owned by France Telecom, is to sack up to 2,000 employees as it sheds 15 per cent of its workforce to cut costs.

Orange expects to achieve the job cuts "through a combination of redeployment, natural attrition, non-renewal of temporary short term contracts, and, as a last resort, some redundancies," Bernard Ghillebaert, the chief executive of Orange UK, said today.

"Specifics will be worked out over the next few months and a final structure in place by September, but the new Orange must be lean and agile and our cost base needs to be lower," he added.

"Specifically, we will be 15 per cent leaner, resulting in significant annual savings and a streamlined, more efficient organisation. This means the loss of approximately 1,800 to 2,000 jobs."

The announcement follows news from Imperial Chemical Industries, Britain's biggest chemicals company and maker of Dulux paint, which said this morning it plans to cut a further 2,300 jobs over the next five years to save £170m a year.

Orange said it was unable to comment on where exactly jobs are likely to go.

But the move comes as France Telecom reviews the business and changes its structure to integrate its Wanadoo broadband business under the Orange banner.

This is part of France Telecom's NExT (New Experience in Telecoms) business review, which the company has said will tackle "a profound evolution of the telecommunications industry's business model".

The plan places a heavy emphasis on fixed and mobile high-speed internet services, a market that has recently become massively competitive with rivals rushing to undercut each other in recent months.

France Telecom, Europe's second-largest mobile company, warned earlier this year that it planned to axe 17,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2008 to reduce costs. The state-owned giant bought Orange for £25.1 billion in 2000 from Vodafone.

Last month, France Telecom posted a 10 per cent increase in quarterly sales, helped by growth at its Spanish and Polish mobile operations.

Revenue at the former monopoly rose to €12.81 billion (£8.8bn), up from €11.62 billion a year earlier, or 2.2 per cent on a comparable basis. The results were in line with analysts' expectations.

Gross operating profit increased 6.7 per cent to €4.67 billion, or 0.1 per cent on a comparable basis. Gross operating margin slipped to 36.5 per cent from 37.2 per cent due to higher advertising expenses.

"Competitive pressures intensified in Europe," the group said in a statement.

Revenue at Orange, the group's mobile-phone-services division, jumped 24.5 per cent to 6.63 billion led by strong growth in Poland. In the UK, revenues rose by 5 per cent.

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