Telecommunications firm Spark is offering little detail about another round of job cuts expected by the end of the year.
Spark’s full year earnings for the year ended June showed earnings and margins under pressure following what it described as a challenging year.
It planned to change its operating structure, which began in 2024, resulting in some 190 fewer staff.
“This of course includes all movements as people come and go from the business, not only changes we have made to our operating model,” it said.
Spark declined to talk about how it was achieving labour cost savings, other than to confirm it planned to cut $50 million, or 10%, from labour costs in the current financial year ending June 2025.
“We have provided transparency over the rationale for these changes during our results announcement, as well as the labour cost reduction we are targeting, and so we won’t be commenting further via interviews at this time,” it said in reply to questions.
It had been consulting with staff in some of its customer care teams on how it could remove duplication, improve efficiency, and ultimately deliver better experiences for our customers.
“Our focus is on consulting with our people.”
Spark’s cost-cutting and restructuring plan, SPK-26 Operate Programme, said it planned to align its teams to a new strategy and its labour costs to changing revenue trends, with the majority of these benefits to be realised in the current financial year.
“It is important to note that this change is not just about reducing cost,” it said.
“It is about addressing structural issues in our business by integrating our subsidiaries into Spark, removing duplication, simplifying, and delivering better customer experiences. It is never easy to make changes that impact our people, and we don’t do so lightly, but we must ensure our cost base is sustainable.”
It said the programme would deliver further labour and operating cost reductions, improve margins, and insulate Spark from the economic environment.
“We will continue to provide our teams with the appropriate support to transition through these changes.”
By Nona Pelletier for rnz.co.nz
