iSoft to close Manchester HQ offices

iSoft has announced that it is to close the company’s headquarters near Manchester Airport and relocate staff there.

A total of 51 employees of the software company will have to choose to relocate from the Aviator Way site to nearby Warrington or to its new headquarters, the former Torex offices in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

A spokesperson for iSoft told E-Health Insider that there was no current timeframe for the move and that a 30-day consultation with staff on the closure was pending. "No precise date will be available until that is finished and the other logistics sorted. The 30-day consultation has yet to start and will not until we have elected employee representatives."

The company, which reported losses of £382m last month in its restated accounts, moved into the new offices as recently as March last year. Its main site is now to be at the old headquarters of Torex, which merged with iSoft in 2003.

iSoft say the site closure was previously announced as part of its strategy to reduce overall operating costs. Staff at its Prestwich and Warrington sites are not affected by the closure.

The company is a major supplier to the NHS generally and to the National Programme for IT, working as a clinical software contractor to CSC in the North-west and West Midlands region and to Accenture the North-east and Eastern regions.

John White, communications director at iSoft, told the Manchester Evening News: "We are not making anyone redundant, our staff can move to Warrington, which is not too far away.

"We are taking some practical steps to secure the company’s future, we need to cut costs and this is a sensible and logical thing to do.”