Things werent happening quickly enough for us. The opportunity hasnt come about as quickly as we would have liked. There is definitely space for a manufacturer who can produce good different kit and bring it quickly to market said Fonexco managing partner Mike Crompton.

We have been working with Benefon for over two years developing and opening up the market place for the manufacturer.

Within the current state of the market place brand awareness and speed to market are essential for the launch of any new product.

We had lots of good feedback from the industry on the products and enjoyed fair sales. We needed more than that. Benefon is working with a consultancy to look for another partner.

We were well accepted by the industry but we cant compete with larger manufacturers Crompton added.

We havent been able to deliver products into the market. Operators investment in 3G has inhibited location-based services which are part of the Benefons strategy he said.

The pre-pay market has affected sales of consumer-oriented handsets like the Q. We would have loved Benefon to provide us with large sums of money to support the brand. Its clear big investment is required Crompton concluded.

Benefon regional manager Thorsten Brysch added:

Customers have been asking us about our distribution in the UK. This was related to Fonexco who are no longer interested in working with us. We are surprised at the decision.

We will be looking for a new partner able to understand the product and the market. In the Interim we will look after our customers directly. We have a team of three to four people working full time on the UK.

The market took off slower than Fonexco expected and perhaps they became impatient.

Brysch said Benefon needed three years to grow the brand.

We are only 400 employees compared to Nokia s 60000. We cant afford to advertise on primetime TV . We are almost there. We need only nine months before consumers are familiar with the name. We supported the brand editorially wherever we could.

Before appointing Fonexco Benefon worked with JWE for distribution.

With Fonexco we have been on a learning curve regarding the market. We can do better. The market appears to be stronger than Fonexco was indicating. The announcement is not good news but its better to have this situation rather than quitting the market completely Brysch said.

Fonexcos ad agency Fishtank went bust last month (see Mobile News June 25).

Thirty of the 31 Discovery Store outlets will remain open and the name will be retained. Caudwell Group will also acquire a 98000sq ft warehouse and offices in Scarborough and will take on 250 Discovery Store staff with no job losses anticipated. The business will be run autonomously within the Caudwell Group.

There will be no direct relationship with our 4u brand and the Phones 4u shops. We may put some lifestyle products into certain Phones 4u outlets but the overall plan is to develop a separate brand within the Caudwell Group said John Caudwell.

Discovery has a superb presence in the retail arena. We intend to widen the range and provide the best possible high-tech highly desirable innovative lifestyle products.

We are considering a catalogue of Discovery Store products to Phones 4u customers and to the 980000 airtime subscribers on our Singlepoint customer base. But the products we make available will be exclusive to Discovery Store Caudwell said.

We have been testing the market with a Phones 4u Xtra store in Milton Keynes. This is where mobile phones fixed wire phones and gadgets have been sold in parallel and we will be making a decision soon on whether we will extend the Xtra name.

Russell Ford formerly MD of Iceland Frozen Foods will be a 10 per cent shareholder and will become MD of Discovery Store. At Iceland Ford (38) was responsible for 2 billion turnover and 770 stores.

The investigation was launched after third party mains travel chargers originating from China bearing false CE markings and certificates were unknowingly circulated by major UK accessory distributors such as Elite and TAG within the UK market.

Elite immediately recalled all potentially dangerous stock and sacked one of its suppliers (Mobile News February 19). Elite also revised its product testing procedures to prevent rogue product getting into the market.

Trading Standards spokesman Simpson Rolph declined to comment on whether action would be taken against any of the companies involved.

We are in the last throes of the investigation. We have gathered together substantial evidence. I cant comment on whether we plan to take the matter to court or not he said.

Space Communications director Darren Cooke first alerted Mobile News to the rogue chargers. One of the chargers is believed to have exploded.

Trading Standards have asked me to submit further evidence that I bought the chargers from Elite. It looks likely that it might go to court. Im getting fed up because Im having to pay solicitors fees.

Elite supplied me the faulty products. We dont regularly buy from Elite but that time we got our fingers burned. I am still getting faulty units back from customers. Because I am a competitor to Elite they have done nothing about it. No one has apologised. But I understand European Telecom has received a compensation payment from Elite said Cooke.

An Elite spokesperson commented:

We are unaware that any investigation is taking place. We dont understand why it would be of any interest to us. The matter is closed. Elite has not paid any money to European Telecom or its subsidiary TAG.

European Telecom whose subsidiary The Accessory Group supplied chargers to BTCellnet retail chain DX communications confirmed:

We are aware that the investigation is ongoing. We are co-operating with trading standards. We have not received any payments from Elite relating to mobile phone chargers.

Fuller a non-executive director of Fone Logistics (see story this issue) has spent a total of 20 years at Hutchison ending up as COO of Orange UK. He joined Telewest last December from Orange after Orange was acquired by France Telecom.

So said Caudwell Group chairman John Caudwell at the companys annual employee awards held on February 1.

But there had also been problems with Caudwell Groups accessory division Dextra which lost its way badly last year.

A new [Dextra] management team was brought in and the business is now well back on track to continue its progress and strengthen its position as the UKs number one accessory distributor he said.

The groups service and repair divison Mobile Phone Repair Company (MPRC) had also been hit by changes imposed by manufacturers but managed to improve volumes and efficiencies.

We opened 78 Phones 4U stores taking the total to 334 with the highest number of contract connections per outlet the fastest growing market share the most rapidly increased brand awareness and the highest percentage profit increase said Caudwell. We are now clearly the number two player in the retail market place and challenging Carphone Warehouse for number one position.

He added that Caudwell Groups 40 per cent growth in turnover was an absolutely stunning performance in relation to the market.

Most of our customers suppliers and competitors saw their profits reduced their share prices decimated – and in some cases disappeared into liquidation.

He cited Brightpoint CellStar and European Telecom as one-time competitors that had now vanished from the UK.

Meanwhile Cauldwell Group subsidiary Phones 4U has been named as T-Mobiles Distributor of the Year for 2002.

According to T-Mobile account manager Marshall Frieze the support offered by the retail chain was one of the main keys to the networks success in 2002.

He said: In a year that saw much change in how T-Mobile was perceived on the High Street 4U showed the most significant improvements in helping improve the performance of its dealers.

Hugh Symons Mobile Data has signed a distribution agreement with Bluetooth networking product manufacturer Red-M.

Hugh Symons Mobile data will distribute Red-M products such as servers and a clip-on Bluetooth module for palm PDAs.

The promotion will be promoted by a national poster and press campaign. Consumers enter the competition by buying ringtones or logos from Zeds space promotional range for one month.

One hundred entrants will be randomly selected and invited to submit a text reply of up to 160 characters stating why they should be picked to go to space.

The competition will be judged by a real astronaut. The winner will be chosen on November 26.

After three days training the winner will be rocketed at twice the speed of sound to an altitude of up to 87 miles above earth experiencing four minutes of weightlessness.

Andre Neblett (24) admitted using the cloned Mastercard to obtain the three phones by deception from salesman Murat Attaman.

Neblett further admitted obtaining a 14-inch TV set at the same time and place. He had been threatened with a possible jail sentence at an earlier hearing.

Market makers were also unimpressed with the news that financial director Paul Hinder is to leave in November.

Chief executive officer Darren Ridge said results for the year ending next March would be substantially below market expectations.

The trading statement said:

The board believes that this performance is due to two generic factors affecting the companys principal businesses: a revised view of the market in which the companys businesses operate; and unrealistic internal forecasts based on the companys previous strategy.

The core business of mobile retail and wholesale distribution has had some success in securing and retaining high-value customers. However sales in recently opened stores have been slower than anticipated which has meant that some new stores are taking longer than the company had expected to break even.

Sales of mobile handsets have also been hit by the well publicised shift in commercial policies of the major network operators.

This has had an adverse impact on the companys wholesale distribution activities.

Ridge said PNC has launched a cost-cutting drive starting with the closures of its offices at Leeds and St. Albans estimated to save 400000 a year.

It is also likely that some senior managers and staff will go to achieve a further saving of 350000 a year.

Ridge said renegotiation of main supply contracts could add another 500000 a year to the bottom line.

PNC said it will also spend more customer care and marketing to retain and gain high-value customers.

Despite the downgrade I remain very positive about the companys future said Ridge.

Head office costs have been reduced by approximately 35 per cent. per annum. We now have a strong management team that has a wealth of experience in the companys key markets..

Ridge was managing director of KJC Mobile Phones and was made chief operating officer of PNC Tele.com in January six months after PNC acquired KJC.

So says a report called: The Moment of Truth: a portrait of the UK market for mobile phones from Strand Consult.

Strand is an independent consultancy which specialises in analysing and evaluating sales concepts and sales processes within the mobile communication business.

Of the 132 shops and sales persons tested only 28 salesmen demonstrated better than average competence said Strand head John Strand.

Only about half the salesmen recommended a solution without being asked. Only 41 salesmen did better than poorly at asking sufficient questions to discover our needs.

Only 16 shops offered us brochures which included additional services. Only five salesmen asked about our existing knowledge of mobile telephony.

Only eight salesmen asked if we had tried WAP. Only seven shops asked if we would like to be able to read daily news on the mobile.

Functions of the terminals were demonstrated in only nine shops Accessories were mentioned in only 10 shops.

Price was by far the most frequently-used argument for choice of operator. In 103 shops no WAP-enabled terminals were demonstrated the report said.

Strand says the problem is focusing too much on attracting new customers and too little on providing them with the service they deserve.