Vodafone dumps Carphone Warehouse

IN A totally understated press release, Vodafone has revealed that it has dumped the Carphone Warehouse (CPW) by signing an exclusive deal with arch rival, Phones 4U.

The changes will take effect by December 1st when Carphone will no longer handle any mobile contract business. Whether or not Carphone will still handle pre-paid connexions on behalf of Vodafone is still up in the air.

Both Phones 4U and Vodafone say the exclusive deal will provide benefits from supply chain efficiencies and they will work together to market mobile products and services.

Vodafone points out that Phones 4U "has an excellent reach in the 16-34 year old market. It currently operates from 384 sites in the UK and has plans to expand to 450 by mid 2007."

Vodafone itself is investing £15 million in a retail store optimisation programme. Vodafone will have optimised 100 stores by April 2007.

Significantly Vodafone also said it has built up its direct channel capability and taken back the management of existing contract customers to the point of which it now controls 100 per cent of its contract customer base in the UK.

With the announcement yesterday that the Carphone Warehouse has turned itself into the UK's third largest broadband supplier, CPW is increasingly looking like a competitor rather than as a sales arm for the likes of Vodafone and other UK mobile operators. µ