MPRC loses Cuthbert

He joined MPRC formerly part of the Caudwell Group in 1990 from Granada and intends to retire from full-time work.
I intended retiring at the end of 2007. Caudwell s departure meant the changes have allowed me to exit earlier he said.

MPE takes Unique s Parry

The Emblaze Touch 7 has a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash Bluetooth MP3 and MPEG-4 video playback and an expandable memory. It is available in pink or black and has a slider with a depth of 16mm.
Laurence Alexander CEO and president of Emblaze says: We re delighted to launch the Emblaze Touch 7 through Currys. The handset is part of our strategy to make Emblaze Mobile become a brand name in its own right in the consumer handset market.
Jon Lyngra head of trading
and communications at Currys and DSG international added: Working with Emblaze Mobile has enabled us to add depth and choice to the range of consumer handsets we can offer our customers.
DSGi is currently in a transitional period assisting O2 in managing the sale of The Link stores anticipated to continue until March 2007. The process is being led by Nick Wood as managing director of the Group Communications Division.

Cave in at O2

Cave has spent 18 months in the strategy department running the Experience O2 programme. Prior to that she was head of sales within O2 retail.
One of the challenges she faces is successfully integrating staff from The Link within the O2 operation. Understandably she told Mobile News people are going to be feeling a bit unsettled but that s to be expected with any major change.
Cave said: It s the spirit that underpins the whole experience that makes a retailer stand out from the crowd.
O2 has also appointed Cheryl Black as customer service director. Black is responsible for all O2 s call centre staff which number around 7000.

LG wears Prada

LG Mobile has struck a deal with fashion brand Prada. It will launch its first handset in collaboration with Prada in March and promises it will look like no other handset on the market.

The Prada phone follows other fashion-led LG handsets including its Chocolate phone which has sold more than six million outside of its home market South Korea and its Shine handset which launches in the UK in the first quarter.

LG Mobile marketing manager John Bernard said: The design of this handset will be revolutionary in the same way that the design of the Chocolate was a first. It will look like no other handset on the market. In the same way that the Chocolate was utterly unique in its design because of its heat sensitive keypad the Prada phone will also be unique in its design.

Bernard said that no exclusive deals had yet been struck with either retailers or networks but that one of each should get a limited exclusivity period on the device. It just depends on who is hungriest he said.

Avenir winds down fulfilment

Avenir is winding down its consumer fulfilment arm as it re-aligns the business to focus more on B2B.

MD Tanny Price was keen to stress that the company was still committed to selling consumer air-time but that the pick pack and despatch role has been curtailed because it no longer contributes to the profitability of the business.

If I look at every revenue stream the fulfilment service has been by far and away the least cost beneficial said Price. Closing this area down lets me re-allocate staff to potentially more lucrative business.

Price noted that the fulfilment arm was having a detrimental effect on the companys efforts to make the most of ongoing commission offerings from networks because of the possibility of returns.

Having fulfilment in the mix was impacting on my stats she said.

Price stressed that the fulfilment arm was only a small part of the business and that she had been in the process of winding it down over the last few months.

The news comes as Avenir has forged closer links with O2 and Vodafone as a provider of B2B customers.

Dextra to reduce workforce by 20 per cent

Dextra will be culling 20 per cent of its workforce according to a source close to the company writes Heather Dale.

Employees will be asked to take voluntary redundancies to try and cut costs and job duplication. If staff do not leave on their own accord then redundancies will be forced upon them to meet the 20  per cent quota. The time scale for this was not revealed.

The sale of Dextra Solutions and 20-20 Logistics to Doughty Hanson has recently been finalised. Dextra has become part of the 2020 Mobile group.

The 2020 Mobile Group said: Following the completion of the sale of the business it is now looking at ways of restructuring the company in order to improve efficiency and performance. During this time the business will be conducting a full consultation and communication process with all affected staff.

Its possible that the restructure will result in a small reduction in the groups headcount although its hoped that any reduction will be achieved through voluntary redundancy.

In an earlier statement it said: Doughty hopes to increase the value of the business by merging Dextra and 20-20. It also wants to help fund the companys expansion into the US and a number of European countries where it currently has little or no presence.

European Telecom set to acquire Business Comms

Troubled Essex-based B2B telecoms provider Business Comms is set to merge with European Telecom according to a source close to the company.

Business Comms has gone into administration after a recruitment consultant allegedly defrauded the company out of  400000 our sources said. Police are investigating the matter.

Business Comms began trading earlier this year and was a T-Mobile business partner. It has up until now enjoyed rapid growth – its predicted turnover for this year was 2 million. The company began with just four employees in January 2006 and now has over 50.

Subsequent to the company going into administration director Kevin Veitch has stayed on with the company but does not expect to join ET when the deal goes through. Director Stuart London is now at ET as operations director.

The acquisition is the first for ET since Emblaze bought a 51 per cent stake in it last December. At the time the stake was reported to be worth 2.5 million.

3 another 50 dealers go

3 will be dropping a further 50 or more dealers this week for failing to abide by the networks terms and conditions.

The cull comes only days after a recently announced emphasis on connecting more quality over quantity customers from the network at its latest sales conference – a move that was applauded by the dealer community.

At time of printing the affected dealers had not been informed and 3 declined to give out their names.
3 has cut more than 200 dealers since the middle of last year according to its sales director Marc Allera.

A spokeswoman from 3 said: We are focused on attracting and we remain committed to our third-party dealers. However we will cease trading with certain dealers if they persistently breach the terms and conditions and do not fulfil our requirements. We expect a high quality of customer and also that our customers will be supported after the deal has gone through.

The move follows an announcement by 3 that its dealer community must go for more quality customers.
At the conference 3UK sales director Marc Allera said: I cant give a specific figure but we are reviewing our dealer base. Some revision is imminent and more consolidation is highly likely. Weve been talking about quality for some time. We all know what good business is – and if we have to we will take action.

NTL overtures to ITV rejected

ITV has rebuffed NTL s 4.7 billion bid for the company. ITV believes that the proposed alliance makes little strategic sense and undervalues its business. However NTL shareholder Richard Branson has accused BSkyB of queering any potential deal by purchasing nearly 20 per cent of ITV.
NTL which plans to change its name to Virgin Media following a merger with Virgin Mobile said it was considering its options.