Manufacturer IMO (In My Opinion) is eyeing European expansion and aiming to sell 750,000 smartphones this year.
This is despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19), says chief operating officer Chris Edwards.
The prepaid specialist company, which set up in 2016, shipped just over half a million phones last year.
Edwards says IMO’s partnership with operator Vodafone would aid any expansion, with the company currently present in the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
“Our European footprint is something that we’re looking at, and we are planning to potentially launch with our partners in a couple more European markets later this year,” said Edwards.
“One of our big partners is Vodafone, which has a global footprint that helps.”
In the UK, the vendor currently works with a number of retailers, including Carphone Warehouse, Tesco, Argos and Asda, plus MVNO Virgin.
With Vodafone on board already, Edwards hopes to add another operator by the end of the year to help it secure 20 per cent of the UK prepaid market, with a 5G handset to come later this year.
“We hope to add another couple of UK networks by the second half of the year, and will also focus heavily on launching a 5G device,” said Edwards.
Despite the coronavirus causing widespread disruption to the mobile industry, Edwards doesn’t believe the situation will impact IMO.
“From a supply-chain perspective, all our customers will continue to be supplied with stock without interruption,” he said.
“We have multiple production facilities in China and we have a resilient supply chain.”
