Eircom sees 11% drop in revenues
Eircom has announced a drop of 11% in its group revenues for the first three months of the year, down from €455m in 2010 to €407m to the end of March this year.
And in a gloomy forecast statement, a statement from the company said that eircom bosses believed "the economic and competitive environments are unlikely to improve in the near term".
Forty-four jobs were shed in the period, and the company said further losses were planned through early retirement and other measures.
Eircom is planning to cut staff numbers by 1,000 over the next two years.
Some 1,500 workers have already left the company on a voluntary basis over the past two years, and a new round of what the group calls 'exit schemes' is being unveiled today.
The first phase of a cost-reduction programme saw agreement reached between the company and the Trade Union Alliance on a 10% reduction in pay in exchange for a 10% reduction in working hours, which will reduce pay costs by €20m in the coming 12 months.
Eircom lost customers in the period, including 9,000 broadband customers in the quarter to 491,000 at March 31, 2011.
The company grew its post-pay mobile customer base, across Meteor and eMobile, with the addition of 14,000 new customers, but this was off-set by a loss of 22,000 pre-pay customers, giving an overall net loss of 8,000 customers for the period.
Total mobile customers stood at 1,044,000 at March 31, 2% lower than in 2010. Revenues fell 17% for the quarter compared to the previous year. Eircom said this was "driven by fewer customers, reduced average revenue per user and significantly reduced mobile termination rates".
Eircom warned it was likely to breach its agreements with its lenders in the next three months, and said it planned to undertake talks with shareholders and lenders to tackle this.
In a separate announcement this morning, eircom said it would launch the iPhone 4 in Ireland in the coming weeks through its Meteor and eMobile brands.
