However, Fone Logistics is optimistic about the move according to Julien Parven, sales and marketing director. The businesses is continuing its value-add strategy following a primarily business-focused approach though existing relationships with partners Orange, O2 and 3, stated Parven.
T-Mobile has undergone consolidation of its channel and over 2008 has bought together its dealer and distribution channels into one. As part of this, T-Mobile introduced minimum volume levels for distributors of 15000 connections per quarter that Fone Logistics was not able to meet, claiming it missed the target by tens.
Parven stated: “In a consolidating market place you can only feed so many mouths. We have spent a long time repositioning ourselves from main consumer channels. Over the last 24 months we’ve gone through a shift from 70% to 30% in favour of consumers over business, to spinning that the other way round. Quite simply we had a decision to make; to hit T-Mobile’s minimum performance level or continue with our well publicised strategy, looking at how we can add value to our partnerships with 3, O2 and Orange.
“We had conversations with T-Mobile and looked at the level of investment we’d need to meet its minimum requirements,” continued Parven. “We’ve got an amount of money to invest in business development, and we decided we’d like to invest that in our main priority, our strategy, rather than with T-Mobile, which focuses on a traditional retail sale which is not necessarily where we’re positioning ourselves.”
Parven added that Fone Logistics will continue to talk to T-Mobile with regard to partner opportunities in the B2B space. The business now runs the majority of its consumer business through 3, aiming at high value customers.