Vodafone closed 15% of its licensed stores in Spain to cut costs

Vodafone Spain is at a crucial crossroads. The new CEO of the Worldwide Group, Margherita della Valle, put the Spanish division under a “strategic review”, without excluding any option, including the sale of the entire company After years of cutting revenue and losing customers. Portuguese Mario Vaz, who took over the reins of Vodafone Spain in April, He is responsible for settling scores and convincing the headquarters in London that it is worth continuing to trust Spain. To this end, a strategic plan with two classic axes will be approved this week: improving customer relations to prevent their trips to other companies and reducing costs.

Along these lines, Vaz has already begun to fulfill its duties with the closure of 90 authorized stores in Spain, 15% of the total, and the non-renewal of many dealer channels to improve distribution efficiency and strengthen the digital channel. Already in 2020 the subsidiary announced the closure of 34 of its own stores, coinciding with an Employment Regulation (ERE) filing that affected 500 employees. It now has 595 authorized stores through franchisees and distributors.

Vodafone Spain’s results for the first fiscal quarter (April 1 to June 30), the first with Vaz at the helm, showed a certain improvement, with a slowdown in sales deterioration. Revenue totaled €965 million, down 2.3% from the same period in 2022, due to loss of customers and price competition in the sector, partially offset by price increases. Services revenue was €871 million, 3% lower than last year, down less than that recorded in the entirety of the previous financial year (which ended on March 31), when it decreased by 5.4% of its annual turnover. Vodafone Spain’s mobile contract customer base decreased by 87,000 lines and its broadband base by 65,000 lines.

At the global level, total revenues amounted to 10.74 billion euros in the first quarter of the fiscal year, down 4.8% compared to the same period in 2022, due to the decline in revenues in Greece.

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