King Sturge to cut up to 80 jobs

The firm, one of the fastest-growing of agency practices in the early part of this decade, is to lose the jobs from its Warwick Street West End HQ.

All staff working at Warwick Street are now in a two-month consultation period, and further consultations may be necessary at its City of London and Knightsbridge office. The Canary Wharf office is also affected by the Warwick Street consultation.

King Sturge has decided to make the cuts after seeing the recession follow the credit crunch, ruling out the chance of a quick recovery from property’s slump.

It employs more than 500 people at Warwick Street, and has already reduced its UK headcount by around 100 to 1,300 through natural wastage in the last year.

At the same time, though, it has also bought a number of niche firms, particularly in the retail field.

However, it has now followed its competitors in starting a large-scale consultation as prospects for 2009 look increasingly bleak.