Wildberger, Vodafone’s number two: the key is profitability

The key goal of Vodafone, the second leading player on the local mobile telephony market is profitability of operations this year, given that an increase in revenues is highly unlikely, Karsten Wildberger, 40, the operator’s chief commercial officer of the consumer business unit, told ZF in an interview.

“We prepared the company for this context last year. Clearly, the key is profitability now.” Wildberger is in charge of all the retail sales channels, of the logistics for mobile phones, of the marketing of the offers for residential clients and of customer relations, which makes him number two in the management ranking at Vodafone. He came in Romania as chief financial officer in 2006, after having held top management positions in T-Mobile divisions in Germany and the United Kingdom. The Vodafone official says that another factor to significantly influence the market is the RON trend against the euro. “The exchange rate plays a crucial part in this game in Romania. I believe the exchange rate trend, too, will have a significant influence on the developments in the economy from now on,” Vodafone’s official says. The RON has lost approximately 14% of its value against the euro in one year. As for revenues, they will be affected on the entire market by the low telecom rates, consumer spending decline and local and EU regulations. “In the current climate, I see no increase in revenues in the foreseeable future. This applies to both telecom and other industries. In addition, in Romania, besides the impact of the crisis we also have some of the lowest telecom rates in Europe. Under the current circumstances, I don’t think anyone expected otherwise,” Wildberger said. The growth rate of the revenues of Orange and Vodafone, the biggest telecom operators in Romania has been slowing down constantly over the last few years, from over 30% in 2005 to a minimum of 1%, in the last quarter of 2008. None of the major telecom operators on the local market has made estimates about the revenue trend this year, blaming economic uncertainty. Orange and Vodafone could announce their first decline in revenues since their entry on the market in 1997 this year.