Dealers being offered chance to move to new affiliate dealer programme
Carphone Warehouse Business (CPWB) has axed its franchise business 18 months after it began trialling the scheme.
The news was confirmed to existing franchisees in an e-mail on December 18th with all being offered the chance to move to its new affiliate dealer model which was launched this month.
There are nine franchisees on the scheme which was launched in June 2013 (exclusively revealed by Mobile News at the time) and all will be offered the opportunity to become affiliates. Trial contracts for franchises lasted six months with the last deal set to expire in April.
The new model will allow ex-franchise partners, as well as other potential partners, to earn revenue share on connections with Carphone managing dead structure, completion of the connection and customer service for an upfront fee of £50.
Previously, franchisees were paid an upfront fee with no ongoing revenue share for connections they generated.
A spokesperson for CPWB said that the business was not generating sufficient revenues or potential leads to make it a viable business model. It also confirmed that no franchisees had paid the £5,000 franchise fee as the scheme was still officially in the trial period.
Carphone had been looking at the franchise model as a way of gaining some direct business with local people on the ground. At the time of the launch, it said it planned to have around 40 franchisees covering different regions in the UK.
Franchisees were able to offer tariffs from EE, T-Mobile, Orange, O2 and Vodafone, which is not available to the indirect channel.
Some franchise partners were unhappy that the news was announced via e-mail but CPWB maintains this was the best way to make sure everyone found out at the same time.
