The company welcomed dealers from around the country to learn more about what HSC has to offer now and into next year, with support from major brands who exhibited at the event, including O2, LG, Blackberry, Three, Sony Ericsson, Orange, and T-Mobile, plus an awards dinner and dancing in the evening.
HSC was also pleased to welcome Asus, Acer and Microsoft to its Christmas Conference as exhibitors for the first time highlighting the breadth and depth of its product range, and to encourage mobile dealers to deliver a more rounded business mobile solution to their customers .
HSC has surpassed its targets for 2010, with some of the highlights including: a 35% dealer base increase on 2009, up from 15% growth in 2009; SIM-free clearance handset shipments up 55% year on year thanks to HSC’s relationship with Carphone Warehouse; laptop shipments up 162% on 2009 in part due to the company’s growing relationships with Acer and Asus; an overall hardware shipment increase of 14%; and business connections and upgrades up a total of 8% year on year.
In his morning presentation, Sweetlove told the audience that HSC’s aim is to provide the independent channel with knowledge and value to take back to its customers and convert into pound notes. “After a couple of years of doom and gloom, I believe these are bright days for people in this industry, and it all seems to focus on mobilising the internet. Smartphones need smart dealers, and the smaller independent dealer, who isn’t tied to any one network or manufacturer can be truly impartial.
“At HSC we want to offer maximum choice, world class service, and grow our business by helping dealers to sell more to existing customers and also help them attract new customers. I expect cloud services to help us all do that, and smaller independent dealers have the advantage because they are more nimble than larger businesses so you can move in on this opportunity first, creating tailored solutions for each of their clients,” added Sweetlove.
Following morning presentations, guests were able to explore the exhibition and talk to the numerous brands attending the conference, as well as compete to win prizes from around the show, including a signed England rugby shirt from O2, £250 bonus bond vouchers from Orange and an equal amount from T-Mobile, two red hot Experience Days courtesy of BlackBerry, an LG Optimus One handset from LG, and a MiFi device plus three months free data from Three. Additionally, many winners of the HSC Freeworld Incentive were announced, with lucky dealers winning a £5000 holiday of their choice, to anywhere in the world.
In the evening the HSC team joined the dealers to help cement trading relationships and guests were treated to an excellent three course festive meal and the HSC annual awards ceremony. Winners included O2 as best network, RIM as best manufacturer and Rainbow Mobile as dealer of the year. Covers band the Indie Killers then entertained guests into the small hours and a photo booth sponsored by BlackBerry generated some increasingly amusing images.
Sweetlove stated he was overwhelmed at the positive response to Bright Days and White Nights: “We have had marvellous feedback from our dealers and suppliers from our event. It was fantastic to see all the major brands at our conference, actively taking part and showing their support for HSC. We are the only distributor to bring such a wide choice of manufacturers and networks to our dealers. HSC is truly a mobile distributor to be reckoned with.”