If you were in the living in the United Kingdom, or anywhere around UK, you would probably have heard of Carphone Warehouse. This mobile phone retail store is Europe’s no. 1 independent cell phone seller.
The year 1989 was the birth of this mobile phone retailer giant. Two brilliant minds coupled with a hardworking stamina built this company- co-founder David Ross and CEO Charles Dunstone. The company has humble beginnings with only £6,000 as their savings and capital. Currently, in the 2006-2007 Annual Report of the company, it has earned a whopping £3,991.5 million in revenue.
In 1994, the Carphone Warehouse Insurance program was launched to give their costumers more value for their money. Two years later, the company opened more of its retail stores outside of United Kingdom. The Phone House, the brand name the Carphone Warehouse is using outside of UK, were first opened in Paris and in Dublin.
Aside from selling mobile phones, Carphone Warehouse are also accepting repairs and is one of the largest repair stores of cell phones in the entire UK.
In 2003, Carphone Warehouse launched the Talk Talk brand, which is originally a landline telephone service. In November of 2004, Talk Talk expanded its service by offering Talk Talk Broadband. To date, this ISP service has over 3 million subscribers and is by far one of the fastest selling broadband service providers in the United Kingdom.
Carphone Warehouse with its Talk Talk brand, started offering free broadband on April 11, 2006. Currently, the offer is open to new subscribers who would avail of their Talk 2 International Calling Plan plus line rental. In total, you would only have to pay £16.39 per month. To give you a break down, that includes £10.50 for line rental, which is the same fee that you would have to pay for a BT line, plus £5.89 for international calling service. You can also avail of Talk Talk free broadband when you subscribe to Talk 3 International Call Plan for £20.49 per month, which includes unlimited calls anytime to all local and international destinations. The company is offering a 30-day trial of their call plans with broadband service. If in any way customers are not satisfied with their service, you can cancel your subscription within 30 days.
In October of 2006, Carphone Warehouse teamed up with Best Buy Company and launched Geek Squad. This service offers Carphone Warehouse back-up help for technical cell phone issues. Present costumers can now take advantage of Geek Squad’s technical telephone support round the clock, seven days a week, 24 hours of everyday.
Carphone Warehouse is committed to giving its costumers value for their money. Recently, in July 2007, the company began offering free laptop if anyone avails of an AOL broadband subscription (AOL UK is acquired by Carphone Warehouse in October 2006).
The success behind Carphone Warehouse is mainly because of their phenomenal marketing strategies. The company has been spending millions of dollars in advertising and sponsorships alone. Another factor in the company’s success is their uncanny ability to pinpoint and acquire companies that are relevant to their growth. To date they have acquired a number of companies including Tandy, Cellcom, Opal Telecom, e2save, Xtra, OneStopPhoneShop, One.Tel, and AOL UK.
