Vodafone has blamed lower demand for new mobile handsets for a 9 per cent drop in revenues at its retail network. Accounts filed recently for Vodafone Retail Ireland, which captures the performance of the group’s own-brand store network, recorded the drop in sales to €74.6 million in the year to the end of last March. Operating profits at the estimated 100-strong Vodafone store network also fell, by two-thirds to about €520,000. The wider Vodafone Ireland group, however, returned to profitability over the year on sales of €966 million, according to group accounts reported last month in The Irish Times. Manufacturers such as Apple, which this week announced a shock fall in handset sales in China, have been particularly badly affected.

Source: The Irish Times January 05, 2019 05:03 UTC