For more than 20 years Vodafone, the mobile phone group and Newbury, a suburban commuter town, have been unlikely partners.

As Racal Electronics, then a little-known company, transformed itself into the mighty Vodafone, it stayed loyal to its Newbury roots — and became synonomous with it as the town's biggest employer.

Now, however, the company will scale back those links.

Feeling too isolated in the Berkshire suburbs, Vittorio Colao, the group's latest chief executive, is shifting 200 staff, including senior management, from Newbury to a new headquarters in Paddington, West London.

The move, Mr Colao says, is aimed at bringing the company's top team closer to the group's shareholders and customers and making them more accessible for members of the phone group visiting the UK from overseas.

A spokesman for Vodafone said: "The primary reason is to get certain functions closer to the stakeholders who are based in London. The rationale is not financial."

About 2,400 people who work for the company's UK division will remain in Newbury, he said, as will 900 group employees who work at the campus.

Vodafone started life in Newbury in 1984 when Racal spun off its new mobile subsidiary which stood for VOice, DAta, and — phonetically — phone.

The first Vodafone call was made to Sir Ernest Harrison, the Racal boss, in London, by his son Michael, in Newbury.

As mobiles took off and business boomed, Vodafone became an international player and an ever greater presence in the town.

Before moving to its £129 million headquarters on the outskirts of Newbury in 2003, the group used 60 buildings spread around the centre.

The new Paddington headquarters where Mr Colao and his senior staff will be based is in a large complex close to the railway station.

It opened in December.

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