ATTENDEES AT the recent get-together of the Telecoms and Internet Federation (Tif) would have left with the impression that the industry is struggling through the recession.
But accounts just filed for mobile operator Telefónica O2 Ireland show the bad times have not yet reached its headquarters on Dublin’s Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, where Danuta Gray recently announced she was stepping down as chief executive after nine years.
O2’s Irish operations threw off a healthy pre-tax profit of €203 million last year, up from €155 million in 2008.
The detailed directors report accompanying the accounts reads like a valediction for the straight- talking British-born businesswoman. Despite the severe economic downturn, O2 finished the year with just a 1 per cent slippage in customer numbers, while it overtook Vodafone in the market for bill-paying customers.
The increase in profits is down to a sharp reduction in costs.
Staff numbers were reduced by about 170 to just over 1,030, with the pay bill falling from €80.5 million to €64.6 million.
Gray and her senior team don’t seem to have been averse to taking some of the pain themselves.
Salaries and benefits for key management and directors fell from €5.3 million in 2008 to €2.8 million in 2009.
While some of that will have been accounted for by the departure of long-serving commercial director Gerry McQuaid during the year, Gray must have felt the pinch herself.
Still, she can feel content that she is handing over a financially healthy company to her successor Stephen Shurrock on December 1st.
Her retirement begs the question of whether Gray might be asked to add to her current portfolio of non-exec positions, which includes seats on the board at Irish Life Permanent, Aer Lingus and children’s charity Barretstown.
