More than 500 EMI employees crowded into the Odeon cinema on Kensington High Street, near the embattled music company’s head office, yesterday to learn how Terra Firma plans to cut 2,000 jobs and reduce costs by £200 million.

Two meetings of about an hour each were held for staff, who filled the cinema’s largest auditorium to hear a presentation from Guy Hands, chief executive of Terra Firma, the company’s new private equity owner.

Mr Hands was mobbed by media as he arrived for the first meeting at 10am, but made no comment.

Few of the 100 or so staff from the first meeting who emerged into the drizzle would comment, but those who did said that they were not angry at the prospect of mass redundancies, but accepted that EMI needed a new direction. Some said that the presentation by Mr Hands was “very inspiring” and that he had been given a round of applause.

“That’s life; that’s business,” said one man leaving the first meeting, who said that he worked in risk management.

“I’m optimistic,” one female staffer said. “We need to start making money,” said another.

Some of the 400 staff who left after the second meeting, which started at 11.30am and ended shortly before 1pm, said that they were worried about losing their jobs, but agreed that change was unavoidable.

One member of staff, who works in EMI’s artwork production unit, said: “Obviously it’s sad news. We hope the new plans will work and we will come out stronger. Everybody is very worried about job losses but we don’t really know the details yet.

We’re just waiting to find out.”Another said: “What else can you do? There’s no other alternative.”

Mr Hands slipped out of the cinema via the side door without commenting. Lord Birt, the former BBC director-general who joinedTerra Firma as an adviser in 2005, also attended the event but refused to comment.

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