Mobile and broadband operator Vodafone will shut all 34 of its owned retail stores in Spain by March 2022, a labour union source said on Tuesday, as part of a plan to lay off over 500 workers in a hyper-competitive telecommunications sector.
Vodafone will seek to close every store it operates in Spain in the next six months, leaving only the brand’s franchises behind, the source from leading union Comisiones Obreras said.

The telecom had earlier this month announced it would negotiate the layoff of around 515 employees, some 12 percent of its Spanish workforce, citing challenging conditions on the competitive Spanish market.

That number has already been trimmed to 509, according to a separate source from the UGT union, which represents about half of syndicated workers. Nearly half of all workers due to be laid off work in the proprietary stores slated for closure, the source added.

Negotiations are set to last until late October.

France-based Orange announced it was laying off 485 employees in May, citing Spain’s increasingly low-cost and hyper-competitive telecoms sector.