Spark's brutal revamp yields modest gains

New Zealand operator Spark has come through a heavy round of cost-cutting and restructuring with only modest financial improvement to show for it. After stripping back parts of the business and tightening spending, the company has reported a small profit and slightly better margins, but no clear breakthrough on growth.

Spark is now under pressure to find new revenue streams while keeping investors patient. The telco has already taken out many obvious costs, leaving fewer easy levers to pull. Its next phase depends on finding growth in a mature, competitive market, where mobile, broadband and enterprise customers have plenty of other options.