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Speaker 1: Now Spark has rebounded from its disastrous first half year

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Speaker 1: last year. It's net profit has nearly doubled to sixty

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Speaker 1: four million dollars. Unfortunately, it is still short of analyst

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Speaker 1: expectations of closer to one hundred million. Jolly Hodson is

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Speaker 1: the chief executive. Hi, Jolly, Hi, that you must be

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Speaker 1: relieved to get a decent one out of the way.

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Speaker 2: I'm really placed. I think we've had a step up

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Speaker 2: in the business and we're really delivered on the things

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Speaker 2: that we said we do last year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now you're seen as something of a bell weather

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Speaker 1: as well for the economy. So what are you seeing

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Speaker 1: out there?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it's max still, but I think I

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Speaker 2: feel like the economy sort of finding its footing. I

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Speaker 2: can say that like that consumer, we're starting to see

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Speaker 2: some improvement. I think in business is still a bit

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Speaker 2: of low spend happening, but as I look forward, I'm

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Speaker 2: positive about that.

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Speaker 1: Outlook, what's going on. Is there still a bit of caution?

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Speaker 2: I think so in terms of that, and different sectors

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Speaker 2: are experiencing different things and so the recovery is not

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Speaker 2: the same for everyone. But when I look at activity,

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Speaker 2: whether it's like new iPhone launch or things like that.

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Speaker 2: We have seen a bigger pick up in those sorts

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Speaker 2: of things.

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Speaker 1: So what do you how long do you reckon it's

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Speaker 1: going to take us to get back to what we

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Speaker 1: would have considered a level of normal pre pandemic. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I need a pretty good.

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Speaker 2: Crystal ball for that one.

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Speaker 1: Hither is it this year though?

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Speaker 2: Because you get you know, as you go down through

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Speaker 2: calendar twenty six, I think you're still probably a lot

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Speaker 2: of bit towards the end, but there are some promising

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Speaker 2: signs and ultimately getum A confidence is an important part

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Speaker 2: of that. Yeah, Yeah, And so I think it's making

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Speaker 2: sure that businesses were investing, which we are and we're

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Speaker 2: still innovading and doing new things. I think that's part

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Speaker 2: of how we left forward as a as a country.

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Speaker 1: Really. Yeah, Now, let's talk about your business a little bit.

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Speaker 1: To see you're losing a bit of market share with

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Speaker 1: the mobiles. What's happened there?

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Speaker 2: Well, if you look at the mobile revenues, we actually

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Speaker 2: grow our revenues one point six percent, which is up

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Speaker 2: on the prior period. Small, but we're market leader by

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Speaker 2: some distance in terms of about five cheer points there.

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Speaker 2: And we did see some competition in around sort of

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Speaker 2: envy and o which is more of your maybe energy

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Speaker 2: bundleism and things like that.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, and so they've nibbled away users to

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Speaker 1: pattern is it two degrees?

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Speaker 2: No, no, more like an energy so like a power company.

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Speaker 1: Always see the power company is the one leading the

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Speaker 1: way on this. Oh I see, okay, the weather I

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Speaker 1: mean I was thinking about this when the weather was happening.

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Speaker 1: I thought, okay, we're talking a lot about how people

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Speaker 1: are fairing here, but a lot of you guys, there's

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Speaker 1: a fair amount of infrastructure you've got out there. Has

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Speaker 1: it best you about?

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Speaker 2: So the infrastructure itself, like mybile sites and things like that,

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Speaker 2: haven't been impacted. But of course we really heavily on power.

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Speaker 2: So when power is impacted, we either have battery back

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Speaker 2: up or we have gen sets going to different sites,

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Speaker 2: and of course that needs to be delivered in a way.

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Speaker 2: If freids are cut off and things like that, that

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Speaker 2: does make that challenging. So we focus really hard on

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Speaker 2: working across the industry to make sure we can stand

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Speaker 2: it up, you know, stand up service for everyone as

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Speaker 2: quickly as we can.

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Speaker 1: Are you guys doing things to adapt because this is

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Speaker 1: what the conversation is at the moment, right, how do

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Speaker 1: we adapt and and prepare ourselves for this to happen

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Speaker 1: on the regular? What are you doing for that?

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Speaker 2: I think if you think about that, we're looking at

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Speaker 2: so battery lives. We're also looking I mean work closely

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Speaker 2: with the power industry. Might add as well in terms

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Speaker 2: of when you think about recovery, where are they going

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Speaker 2: to go first? What does that mean we go to separately,

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Speaker 2: so we work across industry. With significant weather events, though,

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Speaker 2: you do think about where you build your infrastructure, but

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Speaker 2: the reality is if you locked across New Zealand in

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Speaker 2: this last few weeks, it's you know, we've had with

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Speaker 2: the events in many places, so it's not like you

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Speaker 2: can say, well, you won't do it there and you

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Speaker 2: need it's critical to everybody communicating and living their life.

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Speaker 2: So for us, it's just really around how do we

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Speaker 2: continue to build resilience but also work closely with other

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Speaker 2: infrastructures to make sure that if we are making investment

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Speaker 2: is sensible across a lot of us. Speaking of which

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Speaker 2: you haven't and you're going to launch this year the

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Speaker 2: mobile to satellite service. Here is that Stalin I can't say, Heather,

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Speaker 2: we will say when we launch.

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Speaker 1: We can take from that what we will How are

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Speaker 1: you finding AI? Because I see one of the things

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Speaker 1: that popped up today was you're finding AI is increasing

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Speaker 1: your productivity? How was that?

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Speaker 2: So if you look examples like in our contact into

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Speaker 2: speeding up information about a customers so that our agents

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Speaker 2: are able to help them better. If you think around

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Speaker 2: we just talked about infrastructure, So some of the things

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Speaker 2: we're trialing right now is AI using that technology to

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Speaker 2: a cell site somewhere, make sure if the POW's not

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Speaker 2: required at the same level that we can adjust it

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Speaker 2: remotely and do those things.

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Speaker 1: It's just try it down from it out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And then also looking at coding, you know,

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Speaker 2: things like that, how do we help with natural language?

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Speaker 2: Now you can do a lot more faster you have

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Speaker 2: of human reviewing what's happening. But it's speeding up some

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Speaker 2: of the dross as well in terms of the day

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Speaker 2: to day work that people are doing. So we're just

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Speaker 2: looking at it very much now from a process end,

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Speaker 2: because of course you just move work down a process

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Speaker 2: if you only focus on one side and don't.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, do you think that this is the solution

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Speaker 1: to our productivity problem in countries like New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: I think it's certainly something that and I've had someone

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Speaker 2: say to me, why wouldn't you want thirty percent more

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Speaker 2: brain power that you get from something like that or

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Speaker 2: to be able to remove where And I definitely think

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Speaker 2: it's something that we should be adopting. It is happening globally.

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Speaker 2: It will help us with productivity. It's always about finding

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Speaker 2: the things that are really useful though for your organization,

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Speaker 2: and not everyone's the same, so it's about I suppose.

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Speaker 2: But what I would say to people is if you're

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Speaker 2: not testing and trying and really understanding how you could

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Speaker 2: do it, you're going to get left behind because your

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Speaker 2: competitors will be totally jolly.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming in. It's been great to chat

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Hether Jolie.

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Speaker 1: Hodson's CEO, chief executive brother of Spark. Right now is

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Speaker 1: thirteen past six. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

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