Phones 4u Macclesfield store to close

Mobile phone retailer Phones 4u looks set to close its Grosvenor Centre store in Macclesfield after the company went into administration.

The retailer, who’s 550 stores may all be closed, lost a key contract with EE last week, soon after losing one with Vodafone.

Despite being a profitable business, with turnover of £1bn and underlying profits of £105m in 2013, it says without the contracts from the phone networks it can no longer operate.
Phones 4u chief executive David Kassler said: “Today is a very sad day for our customers and our staff. If the mobile network operators decline to supply us, we do not have a business. A good company making profits of over £100m, employing thousands of decent people has been forced into administration.”

Phones 4u said it had only received EE’s decision late on Friday. Vodafone had also severed its link with the retailer recently and its tie-up with Phones 4u represented some £212m of sales in the year to July 31.

The Newcastle-under-Lyme firm employs 5,596 people and all their jobs are now at risk. The chain is owned by private equity firm BC Partners.

PwC is expected to be appointed as administrator and the stores will be closed until a decision is taken on whether they can continue trading. There is speculation that one of the major networks such as EE will buy some or all the stores as the major companies have increasingly operated their own shops, rather than paying third party commission.

Phones 4u was set up by the entrepreneur John Caudwell in the  mid-1980s and sold for £1.5bn some 20 years later.

By the time he sold it, it was selling 26 phones a minute and employed 10,000 people. It generated sales of more than £2.25bn.

Phones 4u said all mobile contracts bought through Phones 4u will remain unaffected and the networks will continue to provide mobile services to these customers.