Dealer’s base surpasses 40,000 as company targets three more deals before the end of the year
Welcomm Communications has increased its base to more than 40,000, following the acquisition of Coventry-based dealer Crown Mobile.
Market Harborough based Welcomm, and O2 exclusive partner, acquired Crown for an undisclosed fee on February 12 adding close to 3,000 O2 connections to its base.
It is the third acquisition from Welcomm in just over 12 months, having purchased the O2 base of Nuneaton’s CDM Global (2,500 numbers) in November and Northamptonshire-based Dialect in late 2009 (5,000 numbers).
Welcomm chairman and founder Chris Stanton (pictured), who claims one of the closest strategical dealer relationships with O2, was alerted that Crown were considering exiting the business, by an O2 account manager.
Crown managing director Roger Adey, who founded Crown Mobile in 1993, setting up offices in Coventry and a service centre in Worcester, is now understood to have “semi-retired” from the mobile industry.
The Crown office in Coventry will be retained and re-branded as Welcomm, with no redundancies. However, Welcomm confirmed it did not acquire the assets for the Crown office in Worcester, which is expected to close at the end of its lease.
Stanton said he expects to acquire “at least” three more “larger” O2 dealers or dealer bases by the end of 2011 and more in 2012. He refused to name potential targets, however.
Welcomm moves to a purpose-built 7,000sqft office early next year to cope with the expansion.
