Vodafone Idea to pare 16,000 distributors, 2,000 branded stores this fiscal

Vodafone Idea is in the process of reducing the number of its distributors by 16,000 and branded stores by 2,000 by the end of this fiscal, a company document said.

The company plans to reduce the number of its distributors from around 43,000 to 27,000 by December.

Vodafone Idea has around 6,000 branded retail stores, which it plans to cut to 4,000 by March 2019, the document said.

The company also plans to reduce the number of its call centres to 38 from 82 at present by March 2019 as part of its integration plan.

Vodafone Idea expects to achieve business integration by March 2021.

While Vodafone Idea is the largest telecom operator in the country, it continues to be under debt burden of around Rs 1.2 lakh crore and has been losing mobile customers.

The company reported a consolidated loss of Rs 4,973 crore for the September quarter in its maiden financial results after the merger.

The merger of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular was completed on August 31.