Vodafone has announced that it is set to close its final salary pension scheme next April.

If the closure goes ahead, the scheme, which is understood to serve around 4,000 of Vodafone's employees, will become one of the largest to take this measure in recent times. The mobile phone giant shut the scheme to new entrants in 2005.

The company's latest annual report and accounts, released at the end of March, showed that the assets of the DB scheme had a £60million shortfall.

Staff have reportedly received a letter this week informing them of a consultation exercise ahead of a planned closure of the defined benefit (DB) scheme in 2010.

Commenting on this latest in a growing line of DB closures, Robert Gardner, co-CEO at Redington, said trustees must continue to focus on investment strategy, liability management and risk transfer opportunities.

"In parallel to these closures, employers need to consider alternative retirement solutions that meet the requirements of their employees. We are starting to see these alternative retirement arrangements use a broader range of financial techniques that have previously been the domain of defined benefit pension schemes.

"The challenge for trustees is to keep abreast of industry developments, product innovations, and providers," concluded Gardner.

Mark Duke, head of pensions at Towers Perrin, added that the action Vodafone has taken does not come as a surprise when considered next to a recent poll conducted by the consultant. Of the 100 major UK employers consulted, 85 per cent were expecting to announce significant pension changes in the next 18 months. "We anticipate that many will take action similar to Vodafone while others will find different ways to mitigate the rising cost of promising a pension to employees. Whatever decisions are taken by employers, the result is invariably that employees need to take more responsibility for their retirement savings."

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