Struggling vendor HTC announced more job cuts as it looks to focus on profitability.

The company will cut some 1,500 positions in its Taiwan manufacturing operations by September, which reports said equates to around one quarter of its global workforce. It described the move as a way to “optimise the manufacturing organisation” in its homeland.

“This plan will allow more effective and flexible resource management going forward,” the company said.

With HTC continuing to struggle in its core smartphone business, it is unsurprising it carries on trimming its workforce to match its current situation. But with the company having been shrinking for years, there is clearly little sign a turnaround is imminent.

Earlier this year, HTC closed a deal to offload some of its smartphone resources to Google, following a long relationship between the companies. And while HTC is investing heavily in VR as a growth driver, there is still a lag as the smartphone unit slows.

While there had also been talk about the company splitting the VR and smartphone units, HTC recently united its smartphone and VR businesses under common regional leaders. This came in the wake of the departure of Chialin Chang, its former smartphone chief.

With the company trimming costs, it does not make much sense for it to maintain two separate structures.

HTC’s latest flagship device, U12+, was met with lukewarm reviews, particularly with regard to a pressure-sensing input feature.