Vodafone: make the most of No

For a company in the communications business, Vodafone is painfully shy.
It has been known for some days that the company was going to be cutting jobs because it wants to save money.
Yesterday, rumours suggested that its business solutions division, which is based at Newark, might be among those offices affected.
Today, Vodafone has indeed announced plans to cut 500 jobs, 170 of which will be at its Newbury headquarters.
What about Newark? Good question. When I asked Vodafone – in four separate phone calls over three hours – if it could tell me whether any jobs would go in our patch its response was at least consistent: No.
"We're not giving a breakdown of the numbers at all," its spokeswoman said to me.
But you've already said that 170 of the jobs are going at Newbury, I responded.
"We've just decided the message would be simpler if we talked about the total."
Yes, but do you not see that this creates uncertainty?
"We're just not going to go into it by region. It would be inappropriate."
We do think it's appropriate. So watch this space...
4pm UPDATE: Vodafone has now admitted some jobs will be going at Newark, but only after I found out from someone else. My source tells me 15-20 full time posts may go, but Vodafone will not confirm a number, despite the clarity of its earlier figure at Newbury. If you know more, get in touch.