Vodafone stronger after restructuring

Vodafone has reported a 1.1% rise in group revenues for the first quarter, helped by its recent restructuring.

The company has recently reviewed its global marketing department following the departure of global brand director David Wheldon and global director of customer insight Andy Moore.

Under the review, the company shed 10% of marketing jobs, mainly from its BusinessWayfinder division.

It is still looking for replacements for Wheldon and Moore and interim replacement Harit Nagpal, formerly chief marketing officer of Vodafone Essar will leave the firm at the end of August, to join Sky India as its CEO.

In its results for the 13 weeks to 30 June, the company says it has returned to growth in the first quarter helped by improvements in Germany, Britain and Turkey, dubbing the brand “a stronger Vodafone”.

Its service revenue, which is made up of revenue related to ongoing services, was £10.59bn, up 1.1%, compared with a 0.2% percent drop in the fourth quarter of the last financial year.

The company says the performance shows a continuing improvement, despite European service revenue being down by 1.7%.

“These are the first quarterly results to show service revenue growth since the global recession impacted,” says chief executive Vittorio Colao.

“We have achieved these results through our continuing commercial approach in key European markets, focussing especially on data, and from strong growth in emerging markets, with India now cash positive at an operating level and our highest ever quarterly revenue in Turkey.”

Last month, Vodafone Group vowed to continue operating in the mobile advertising sector following the strategic review of its business.

Wheldon stood down from his role at the company earlier this year, after six years in the position.

Moore joined consultancy Nunwood as its strategy director in March.

Group chief marketing officer Wendy Becker led the changes. Becker is a former managing director of TalkTalk and joined the company last September. She is a member of the company’s executive board and has been tasked with renewing the company’s brand strategy.