Disney to cut back UK operation

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is to shrink its UK-based sales and marketing division with the loss of several jobs in the face of falling visitor numbers and escalating losses at its Paris theme park. The exact number of redundancies will be announced within the next few weeks. More than 50 people are currently employed in Disney’s sales and marketing department in Hammersmith, west London but a spokeswoman said the organisation planned to reduce the team and draw instead on central resources in Paris and Orlando. “We are going through a consultation process and we won’t know anything more until that it complete,” said the spokewoman. “During that process, everyone in the department will have a chance to contribute.” The news follows the resignation of sales and marketing vice-president UK and Ireland Jo Rzymowska and travel industry marketing manager Mark Persad and comes hard on the heels of a hostile takeover bid by US cable conglomerate Comcast Corporation. Walt Disney Company board of directors has rejected the US$60 billion bid, saying that it undervalued the entertainment giant.