Australian Franchise News – 24-03-10
Global telecommunications reseller and franchisor, Telcoinabox has appointed Australian from Adelaide, John Pellew, as CEO to head its UK operations and launch the business into its next phase of expansion.
Since officially opening its offices in London over a year ago, the new telecommunications entrant is ready to shake up the market. With the infrastructure fully functional, contracts signed with leading UK telecommunications suppliers, Gamma Telecom (fixed wire and mobile), Opal, Openreach and Tiscali and the back office service and technical support up and running, the company has set its sights on growth through signing new franchisees and wholesale service providers.
“We really are in a prime position for growth in the UK. Although the market is mature, there is room for a fresh offering that fits between the niche players and the major carriers. “We see ourselves as the alternative to a major phone company. While we act exactly like a phone company, we just added an extension to the traditional model.
“We have our own billing system, we offer high volumes of minutes at wholesale prices and provide the full spectrum of telephony products, as well as first and second line technical support. In addition we offer an off-the-shelf business package ready to go for franchisees and wholesale service providers with an entrepreneurial flair.”
Joining the company in October 2009, Mr Pellew has been working alongside Damien Gould who came from the Australian headquarters to set up operations in the UK. “John’s input has already shown incredible results in a short number of months”, says Damian Kay, founder of Telcoinabox. “Under his leadership, we have signed our first UK franchisee and we are in negotiations with the two largest real estate businesses in London, an inventory management company and a pre-eminent hardware store that serves more than 1.3 million customers.”
Mr Pellew says demand for the Telcoinabox offer both as a franchise and wholesale service provider in the UK is high.“We have received in excess of 140 serious enquiries the first three months from potential franchisees and we haven’t even started a concerted marketing effort yet.“The feedback has been people really like the fact that all they need to do is just add customers and you secure a recurring revenue stream. No other business model does that.
Also, they don’t need a shop front to operate or assume someone else’s brand. They can create their own brand name, look and feel, or simply leverage their existing brand if they are an established company. Our offer is nothing like a traditional franchise system.”
The company has recently secured the status as an approved franchise model among UK’s major franchise lending banks, RBS/Natwest, Lloyds TSB and HSBC, with another two banks soon to follow.
“To be seen by the banking sector as a ‘low risk’ franchise is a huge plus. This means that the Government will provide a guarantee to underpin up to 75% of bank’s security requirements in support of franchise working capital finance.
“We could not be in a more advantageous position,” Mr Pellew says.
Mr Pellew says his focus for 2010 is to pitch the Telcoinabox wholesale-to-resale business model to the franchising fraternity. “There are more than 800 franchise systems in the UK who could financially benefit from becoming their own telecommunications reseller. In fact, we are currently in discussions with one of UK’s leading ‘man in a van’ industrial services franchises to do exactly that. “Their interest in our model is to take better control of their internal communication, so inbound calls and call data is managed within the group.”
In only 12 months Telcoinabox UK is turning over £1million starting from a zero base and the company expects to grow a further 100% by 2011.Currently five staff are employed at the 85 Clerkenwell Road, London office. The company expects to expand to 20 to 25 by 2011. Mr Pellew’s aim is to be known as an ‘employer of choice’ where staff feels they can apply their entrepreneurial spirit to their work.
Telcoinabox UK is replicating the success of the Australian wholesale-to-resale business model targeting business customers and other large organisations.
John Pellew has over four years experience in telecommunications. Prior to joining, he led the development of B2B mobile proposition for a major MNVO. He also founded Business Bundles Ltd which he created and sold within one year. Prior to entering the world of telecommunications, Mr Pellew worked in finance and banking for 14 years holding business development and management positions with major banks including Royal Bank of Scotland and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. John has lived in the UK for seven years.