The Very Group confirmed a ‘strategic change’ to its customer care departments in Speke and Bolton
16:32, 05 Mar 2026Updated 17:27, 05 Mar 2026
The Very Group HQ at Skyways House in Speke (Image: Colin Lane)
Workers in Liverpool said they are “devastated” after a major retailer confirmed hundreds of jobs will be moving out of the UK, the ECHO understands. The news will impact people across the region, who were given the news earlier this week (March 2), many of whom have worked at the company for several years.
The jobs update came from The Very Group, a multi-brand online retailer, which was formed from a 2005 merger between Littlewoods and Shop Direct, before being taken over by American investment group Carlyle in 2025. The transfer will affect staff at Very’s offices in Speke and Bolton.
The Liverpool ECHO spoke to people currently working for Very’s customer care team, both of whom wished to remain anonymous. They told us a video message was distributed to staff on Monday (March 2), showing FS CEO Nick McBrien confirming changes to Very’s customer care operations.
In a follow up FAQ document, also seen by the ECHO, the company wrote: “We’ll be transferring the majority of financial services customer care work currently carried out by our teams in Skyways Hub and Bolton to a new strategic partner called TP, from May 1 2026.
“530 colleagues will transfer to TP under TUPE regulations, and some operational roles will remain within the business.”
The document also stated: “TP has told us that they plan to resource the Very account from other offshore locations which we expect to happen by the end of October 2026.
“When that change happens, TP has committed to redeploying the majority of transferring colleagues to other UK-based accounts doing similar work, fully remotely from home. This will be managed by TP after the transfer on May 1.”
The ECHO understands current staff members will be transferred to a company called Teleperformance (TP), a French multinational outsourcing company, and maintain their roles for Very. However, after October, workers will be reassigned to other jobs within UK-based businesses, when the customer care roles for Very will be moved abroad.
The Very Group HQ at Skyways House in Speke (Image: Liverpool Echo)
The Very workers we spoke to fear the transfer process will result in them taking on roles they have no experience in, for companies they have no knowledge of, and with potentially unsuitable and unwanted working conditions
One staff member, who has worked at Very for several decades, told the ECHO: “We’ve been told we’ll continue working on Very Littlewoods until October. Then we’ll be transferred to operations within Teleperformance”.
Addressing their feelings about eventually leaving Very, the worker said they fear working somewhere else, afraid if the new role is unsuitable, they will be forced to leave.
They added: “[Effectively, it feels like] we’re being made redundant potentially, without the pay-off. There’s been no consultation with USDAW [Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers], nothing.”
USDAW and Very confirmed both organisations have been ‘working closely’ together on the jobs transfer. The ECHO asked USDAW and Very how long that process had been underway before the announcement was made on March 2.
The staff member continued: “The amount of long standing staff here – they moved from Crosby, to Aintree, to Speke – it’s 20, 30, 40 years service for the majority of people, so to be treated like this, it’s disgraceful.
“John Moores would be turning in his grave. Our roles will still exist but it’s cheaper to send it overseas and then find odd jobs for the rest of us.”
Adding: “Nobody was aware of it until Monday when we were told out of the blue. Everyone’s upset. It’s all really uncertain.
“New roles will be fully remote, the training will be fully remote. That’s concerning at our age.”
The ECHO put these points to USDAW, with area organiser Michelle Byrne confirming the union will enter into consultation talks from next week, adding: [This will] provide us with the opportunity to interrogate the business case for this.”
We also put worker’s concerns to Very which wanted to clarify it is not making redundancies. A spokesperson for the online retailer said: “While transformation is necessary to help us achieve our strategic goals, we understand that changes of this nature are difficult for impacted colleagues to adjust to.
“We’re working closely with USDAW […] to support them through this transition.”
However, neither statement appears to have allayed the fears of Very’s staff, including the second worker we spoke to, who said: “We feel completely shafted and utterly devastated.
“We have all worked so hard, and we’re recently told the company had one of its best years, so why are they doing this to us? It only makes sense if they have no care for what happens to the people who work for them.
“After October, we don’t know what will happen and we’re all under the understanding that customer care operations will move abroad. As for starting work for this ‘TP’ outfit from May, none of us have ever heard of them and we don’t know anything about them.
“That’s bad enough, but after October, we have even more uncertainty, so our futures are being plunged into the unknown. The company are asking to trust it’s doing the right thing by us, but that trust is broken now.
“They say they’re not making us redundant, but transferring our jobs, but in the end, it just feels like it is creating the conditions whereby we have to eventually leave and then they get off scot-free.”