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Mobilicity to trim corporate store locations down to 1 per city, will focus on dealer ownership instead
In a mid-November 2011 press release wireless carrier Mobilicity stated that “since launching service in Toronto in May of 2010, Mobilicity has attracted over 250,000 customers to join its service and has by far the highest ARPU among the startup new entrants”. The company operates in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary and has several points of distribution: corporate stores, dealer stores and various retailers such as Zellers, Staples, Walmart and a few Metro grocery stores.
However, it now seems there’ll be some dramatic change happening. We’ve received an internal document which states Mobilicity will be shifting their corporate store structure around. There’s currently 27 corporate stores – but the new direction is to sell off 22 of these locations and only keep 1 corporate-owned store per city (i.e. one in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary). According to the document, which was written by President & COO Stewart Lyons, said that “You may notice notice some changes at the corporate store channel as we transition many of them back to dealer ownership, which they were originally. We are heading back to 1 store per market, which in alignment with our strategic plan. However, many of these stores are high performers, and dealers are interested in acquiring and operating them.” In addition, each store has an average of 4-6 employees and no word on what will happen to their jobs when the transition occurs.
There could be several reasons why Mobilicity is trimming the number of stores down. Yes, this could add fuel to the rumours of rival carrier WIND Mobile buying Mobilicity, or even their rumoured IPO… the less overhead the better for both these scenarios. Probably most obvious is to save money. Even with 250,000 subs it’s gotta be tough to make money when you’re selling $12-40 monthly rate plans. Mobilicity has always been the low-cost carrier. Everything from their handset prices and rate plans. Cutting down on their monthly store lease and employee salaries would save the company money.
Another document that we received, titled “Strategic Objectives”, says they have a “Commitment to being frugal with cash wherever possible”. Guess cutting corporate stores is where it starts.
(Thanks tipsters!)
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I’m all one for competition but I would really enjoy Windicity. A major boost to the network and the srength of the customers.
And about the trimming of stores then they can have one flagsip store in each city that is like the central hub for everything
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When companies are about to be acquired the tend to streamline to make the books attractive. This looks very typical of that.
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Windicity lol I like it
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Had the shared network between WIND and Mobilicity from start, like Bell and Telus do, I’m sure they would have better coverage by now. :-/
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Who’s surprised? Not me.
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Wind and Mobilicity should just hang in tight till the later end of the year when the AWS iPhone is released, it’ll give them a major subscriber boost.. most people with Robellus who can jump ship to Wind/Mobilicity are reluctant due to non-availability of an iPhone…
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I call then effin’ i****s…
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them*
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its not the iPhone that keeps people from joining….its the 3 year contracts they are on
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@chall2k5
It’s both. I’ve had several people tell me point blank that the only reason that they are not considering Wind or Mobilicity is because the IPhone is incompatible with those carriers.
I didn’t even bother taking this topic any further… “effin i****s” is right.
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Trying to minimize cost eh mobi.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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I like this idea, as a Mobilicity dealer, I find we get very little support. We see more secret shoppers for them then we do reps to handle dealer issues.
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I use to be a mobi user, but switched to wind and never look back
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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“Rumoured IPO” is industry speak for “someone please buy us quickly”.
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This is what happens when you don’t expand and do not treat employees right. So glad I don’t work for them anymore and can get reception in malls.
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not a trustworthy company
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After horrible experiences with a few dealers, I was able to resolve it in one of the corporate stores. Hopefully the one they leave standing is centralized and competent. I understand it’s a business, but less support will destabilize what little service I received from the dealers that were “platinum”.
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Hopefully someone puts out a release of which location is the corporately owned one. I am with WIND, but if a friend or family member wants to go with Mobi, I’ll direct them to the corporate store. Dealers can go to hell.
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it depends on the dealer, but for the most part i tend to agree. however, im a little luckier then others. i have the ear of the exec’s so if i need anything done, i typically go up the chain as it were. the comment about dealers goin to hell, is valid coz most dont care about customers, they want the new activation.
i can also comment on the sale to wind or “windcity” while i agree it would be a good idea, and be beneficial to both parties, i can assure you no sale will take place. mobilicitys executive staff are very staunch about wanting to have a lot of competition. a merger would mean one less competitor, and would be bad for the general public. further, some word use here shows me this is accurate. mobilicity most definitely chooses to be “frugal” they are all about spending as little money as possible (except in the case of expansion, cell towers, etc) this seems like a typical mobi plan. cut the corporate stores, will save money.
a good solid move, i think they are here to stay.
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If this isn’t signalling that they either want to be bought out on an IPO or merge with WIND, I don’t know what does.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Bell just went through massive layoffs on both mobile and residential side.
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Few things : who would be stupid enough to buy a Mobilicity store when we all know they are done: Wind will not merge with Mobi, rather they will buy them out once they are bankrupt for a major discounted price : The IPO thing is a bluff, no institutional investor will bite to this scam : Mobi’s management teams is the weakest of the industry. They will not see summer raise this year
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i would buy stake in Mobilicity, simply as a call option on wireless spectrum.
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Guess I’ll have to add the 8$ voicemail option soon b4 my 25$ BTS promo gets transferred to Wind. (One can hope right?)
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Its probably time to negotiate good plans with big 3 before its too late.
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I hope Mobilicity, Wind and Public Mobile all stay independant. Look how they changed the cellular market in Canada. Competition is definitely better for us, the consumers.
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I find it odd there are so many grammatical errors in that internal document. It makes me question its authenticity.
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The drop of the corporate stores is definitely assets off the books; without a doubt positioning the company for a sale. The financial markets have already commented and ruled out an IPO. I wish the reports would get it right Mobilcity’s Management position their sub base as attracted 250k. In reality if you less their churn they have approximately $196K subs.
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