However the contract will be fairly restrictive and 20:20 will not be allowed to undercut distributors who are being supplied by other Orange distributors.

We are looking for incremental business following the consolidation in the market and we are giving ourselves the best opportunity to do this. We have ignored the Caudwell Group for too long said Orange sales director Stuart Henry.

The deal brings to a conclusion a long-running feud between Caudwell Group and Orange based on a mutual dislike between ex-Orange group sales director Gareth Jones and John Caudwell.

It was generally acknowledged throughout the industry that the two men couldnt stand one another.

Jones left Orange a year ago. He recently re-entered the mobile industry as a board director of online handset distributor Mloop (Mobile News April 18).

Browns successor is Ukko Lappalainen who is moving over from Nokias Networks customer business team in France. Brown took up the role as UK managing director from Isto Pankakoski in late 1999 after six years marketing the Nokia brand in Europe.

Brown will be looking after Club Nokia and all the services that it sends over the air to Nokia handsets.

Nokia recently announced slower sales performance in Q1 showing a seven per cent decrease in mobile phone sales in relation to the same period last year.

However Nokia predicts a five per cent rise in sales for Q2 and the second half of this year.

See Nokia story this page.

In an exclusive interview with Mobile News Caudwell said:

I havent had an e-conversation with Hutchison. Ever. At all. Neither have I spoken with their representatives or with their representatives representatives to do with selling any of my businesses.

I dont know how the rumours started but I am astonished by their persistency. I have made so many denials. Despite that everybody thinks Ive sold.

The price quoted is a fair price. It is one I could live with. Though with the growth we are achieving in Phones 4U it very soon wont be fair because we are making the business more and more sophisticated by the day.

We have not been talking to anybody about selling our businesses. My objective all along is and always has been to grow Caudwell Group into the biggest company I can make it headed up by the best management team there is.

That means it is there for the long term. My ambition is that if I retire the management team in place will be strong enough to take the group forward.

Caudwell hinted that the Group may eventually go public.

And at that point we (Cont P2) might see a more traditional institutional management-type scenario come into play. Im trying to build a business thats here until eternity.

Were there any circumstances under which he would contemplate selling individual components of the Caudwell Group or the entire Group itself on a private basis?

My number one ambition is to build a lasting business. But there is something that overrides even that. In furthering that ambition I must never deplete shareholder value. I wont stick with any individual business just to grow Caudwell Group turnover he told Mobile News.

This follows recent profit warnings and the resignation of former chief executive Darren Ridge.

KJCs corporate offices in Swaythling have been shut down as the first casualty of the review. The corporate sales team has been relocated to KJCs mail order centre at Lee-on-Solent in the interim. Meanwhile KJC is currently consulting with its staff at the Fareham distribution centre over the future of the premises and their jobs. A decision is expected within a month as to whether it will be closed and whether staff can be relocated.

We are reviewing the future of all the premises within the mobile business that are not mobile phone shops PNC marketing director Crispin Thomas told Mobile News.

Jobs are not necessarily under threat. We are carrying out a consultation with staff. It is possible staff may be relocated to other locations where we could run our distribution centre. We have shops that have lots of spare room for staff and other activities.

The review and Ridges departure have caused unrest among some KJC staff. They say Ridge has been made the scapegoat for PNCs poor financial performance. At least three staff from KJCs business division including national sales managers have left. However Thomas (Cont P2) scotched the claim saying: Darren Ridge was not a scapegoat. His decision to resign came after the company put out further profit warnings.

Some staff close to Darren Ridge have left the company because they felt they didnt want to work for different management said Crispin Thomas.

PNC recently appointed Ian Gray as its new chief executive.

Gray has had experience as chairman and chief executive with a variety of public and private companies.

Dixons said there would be no job losses from the firms 380 staff as a result of the deal. It also said that 2 million of the 31million paid for the company has been set aside as a golden handcuffs fund for senior managers.

We hope to create more jobs over time. Opportunities for the staff should increase rather than decrease Dixons added.

Brian Kennedy Genesiss founder and former sole shareholder gets 27million from the sale of the business plus another 2million if the company hits specified earnings targets.

The Link managing director Nick Wood said the acquisition of Genesis gives The Link and (Cont P2)

PC World access to Genesis direct sales team and thus the chance to increase sales to small businesses.

Genesis Communications has around 120000 business subscribers connected to Vodafone and O2 networks. The deal will also allow The Link to offer bespoke tariffs to small business customers.

Wood told Mobile News that

trials for small business areas within The Links stores would start this summer.

We will start a series of trials in the summer to find the best way to use our stores to generate business leads and close deals.

Genesis has a very successful direct sales force. Now we have to find a way to marry that with our retail outlets.

We would like to have some sort of business presence in all of our stores. It will be a challenge in some stores because they have limited floor space said Wood.

The Link will connect new business customers through Genesis while consumers will continue to be connected to Vodafone and O2 through The Links established service provider relationships.

This is not an attempt to become a consumer service provider. Genesis is built around high-value business connections.

It would be difficult to make a profit if we started connecting consumers because Genesis customer service operation is geared up for business customers.

As mobile and data technologies converge we will be in a better position to offer businesses a complete communications package added Wood.

PT Distribution chief executive Tim Radford told Mobile News that people would be offered jobs at

Project Telecom where possible.

There has been a huge squeeze on pre-pay margins and we are addressing costs. The biggest cost is staff. We plan to reduce the head count from 140 to fewer than 100 within the next six months.

Right now we are undergoing a consultation process with staff. We are hoping to move some to our corporate business locally. We have 27 vacancies in that business. We have to follow the correct procedures and terminate peoples employment in one company and then re-employ them at the other. It is a (Cont P2) tough market. We turned over 240 million last year and made just 2.4 million profit.

PT Distribution supplies pre-pay handsets and top-up cards to 20000 retailers in the UK. Radford says the networks are squeezing the margins out of the distributors.

Our priority is to remain in profit. I cannot pretend things will get better because the networks have focused away from pre-pay.

To remain profitable we have to take action. There is a future in pre-pay. Seventy per cent of all mobile phones are pre-pay and demand continues for handsets and top-up cards concluded Radford.

The only place we are not selling in the High Street is Vodafone shops We have a pretty comprehensive presence in the High Street and a limited reach through the (Cont P2) specialists. We will let things bed down and get it working optimally. Woolworths will be selling our products in the next four weeks. There has been some to-ing and fro-ing over dates but it will happen shortly. Among the self-select retailers we are where we need to be.

Woolworths is clearly a major High Street name. They are pretty important in the Christmas gift market and enjoy a huge footfall. Woolworths has shown a commitment and desire to play a long-term role in mobile phones.

They have been a major player in sales of pre-pay phones which is the area we are predominantly competing in. We had to be within the big hitters of the pre-pay world. We will constantly review the situation and other names may come into the equation later on said Hutchinson (see P34).

Plans for a second store in the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent are at an advanced stage. But no date has been set for the opening.

Phones 4U and Nokia have shared the costs of planning and opening the stores but Phones 4U takes all the store profits. Nokia senior marketing manager Matt Ogden says Nokia is keen to partner with a number of major high street retailers in order to increase its retail presence in the UK. He assures independent dealers that Nokia is not out to steal their business.

This is just another development in the retail strategy we launched in 1998. It is nothing new he told Mobile News.

Now that times are a bit more difficult than they were having the Nokia brand on major UK high streets will be good for the industry. There is more than enough room for good-quality independent dealers in the market.

We are not trying to compete with them. We are focusing on prime retailing RA grade sites similar to our store in Regent Street London. Few independent dealers have stores in those locations. I dont see we are taking business away from independent retailers. We havent decided on an exact number of (Cont P2) store openings. The long-term vision is to have a Nokia store in every major city within the UK.

Our first Nokia store in Regent Street was a tie-up with The Carphone Warehouse. We have worked with them to open other stores since then.

The decision to work with Phones 4U was taken because we want to work with as many of our direct retail partners as possible. It will help us build up a close working relationship with them so that they can get closer to the Nokia brand.

Working with different retailers means we dont put all our eggs in one basket. It helps spread the risks. We have spoken to other retailers about the concept and they might be coming on board. There is no massive store roll-out plan in place. We would like to work with other retailers because we have a lot to learn about retail0.

Phones4U managing director Anthony Catterson said:

We are 95 per cent of the way through our real estate strategy part of which is to establish a dominant presence in our key trading areas. The partnership with Nokia develops incremental business for Nokia and our network partners in locations where we already have a very strong Phones 4U presence.

We can develop our profitability in partnership with world class companies such as Nokia0.

Ogden says the stores will be a place for customers to experience the Nokia brand.

We are trying to move away from the normal style of retailing. We wont be focusing sales on price. We will let the brand do the talking. It will be a different experience for consumers. We will be looking to sell a complete package including digital services and Club Nokia

ETs phone repair business

Service Xpress has been picked up by Phone fix part of Peter Jones Phones International Group.

Administrative receivers Price-waterhouse Coopers said the sales have preserved around 70 jobs.

Global will initially continue to trade under the ET name and says it has the support of T-Mobile and major handset manufacturers. Global is privately funded and backed by holding company Mobishop Asia which is one of Oranges leading distributors in Hong Kong.

Drinkwater will be managing director of the new organisation

Vivian Boateng (19) faces a total of 17 charges of theft valued at 6975 between January 28 and March 30. One of the thefts is alleged to have taken place at The Orange Shop at 89 Oxford Street. The total amount includes Just Talk vouchers valued at 895.