It has been nearly 10 years since Mobile News ventured out to Chessington to visit
Frequency Telecom, the accessories distributor established in 2002 by Gareth Limpenny and Andrew Cain, along with John Whitlock and Paul Slaven.
In the mobile industry, this is equivalent to a human lifetime.
When we last visited the company – based at Barwell Business Park – it was in the process of moving to a much larger facility to match its growth ambitions across Europe, having previously opened offices in Germany and the Netherlands.
On this occasion, we met Limpenny, who provided an update on the business and an insight into the beginnings of Frequency.
Beginnings
Limpenny’s journey in the telecoms industry began in the mid-1990s, when, after a stint at
Yellow Pages, he joined distributor European Telecom. There, he worked with Whitlock and Slaven, with whom he would later join together to launch Frequency Telecom.
Limpenny’s time at European Telecom, which taught him valuable lessons about the
industry, is one he reflects on fondly.
“I had a fantastic experience,” he says. “I was able to work with a lot of talented
people such as Warren Hardy and Clive Smith. We learnt a lot while at European Telecom, when the industry was booming.”
It was during his six years there that Limpenny, along with Frequency’s other eventual
founders, gained the experience and confidence to start up their own operation.
“Being able to work our way up at European Telecom gave us the foundations to start up the business,” he says. “We took the different experiences we learnt there and used it to create our own company.”
Accessories
Frequency Telecom began life selling handsets to the UK B2B market at a time when Nokia was the leading brand.
Then came BlackBerry and Apple, which changed the dynamics of the industry in a way that led Frequency to venture into the accessories market.
“We saw a gap in that market. We noticed people were using their phones more than ever, and this is where we began to concentrate our efforts,” says Limpenny.
Frequency’s initial focus was on selling cases and screen protectors. Audio and power
accessories were later added to the line- up, with headphones and powerbanks proving popular.
The company works with manufacturers including Samsung, Huawei and Energizer, as well as designer brands such as Case-Mate and Case FortyFour. It serves a range of customers, including mobile wholesalers and resellers, as well as retail stores.
Limpenny, meanwhile, highlights that the size or name of the brands that Frequency works
with is not as important as it once was.
“For us, it’s more important to have brands that our customers are able to make money from,” he explains. “Our job is more to ensure that our resellers have the products to sell confidently and profitably.”
The numbers
Last year, Frequency Telecom made £13.8 million in gross revenue and profits of £3.39
million, though the turnover was down on the previous year’s figure of £15.7 million.
But Limpenny isn’t too concerned, saying Frequency is on course to achieve a target of
£16 million this year.
“The decrease in turnover was down to a change in the market conditions and product mix,” he says. “We’re not too concerned by the number dropping. At the same time, I don’t get too excited if the number goes up. I prioritise volumes and margins.”
Limpenny also believes there are good opportunities for accessories distributors, despite the device market becoming saturated in recent years.
“In the last few years, the overall market has become saturated for a number of reasons. In the UK especially, people are holding onto their devices for longer, with less of a rush to upgrade than they would have previously.
“This means they’ll spend more money on protecting their devices, which gives us an opportunity to attach additional products that can prolong the life of their phones.”
One particular market that Limpenny and Frequency are watching is the emerging move towards foldable smartphones.
With their respective Fold and Mate X devices, Samsung and Huawei are the among the leading vendors due to release foldable phones this year.
“If this segment of the market does take off, then we’ll have the capabilities in place to supply and provide products to protect these,” says Limpenny. “However, this is all dependent on the price points of these products. It’s hard to say if they will be popular with the mass market just yet.”
Lower buzz
Limpenny also notes that the excitement and buzz of iPhone launches has cooled in the
past few years.
“There was a time when people would get more excited about Apple launches than any
other. We would see huge queues and people would genuinely feel thrilled. I can’t remember the last time the industry got excited about any phone launch, let alone one from Apple,” says Limpenny.
In fact, he is more excited about the prospects for Cel-Fi devices sold by Frequency that
boost phone signals indoors – with the booster the only one that is Ofcom licence- exempt.
“This is an area of the business that is very productive for us, and we’re looking to increase our customer service and technical support for it. People accept that they won’t be able to get a mobile signal in certain places, and we have a solution to solve this.”
So far, the company has sold the signal boosters to civic centres and hotels, and even to the NHS.
The service, which can be scaled from coverage of single-room offices to large enterprise buildings means that Frequency has a large customer audience to target, and it even provides an installation service for the booster.
Frequency focus
Limpenny is reluctant to describe the company’s position relative to other distributors, instead choosing to focus on what Frequency itself is doing.
“We don’t compare ourselves to others,” he says. “We want the best for us and our
customers. There are established distributors with different objectives, but for us our only focus is on what we do for our customers.”
The ongoing uncertainty with regard to Brexit is, however, a source of annoyance for
Limpenny.
“We really need someone to hurry up and make a decision either way on Brexit. The
volatility of the exchange rate has not been helpful and the uncertainty around Brexit has not been good,” he says.
“We have no control over it, but we need to best estimate what is likely to happen and deal with any shocks as best we can.”
Despite the company’s growth on the continent – with offices in Sweden later being added to those in Germany and the Netherlands – Limpenny says the UK remains Frequency’s number-one territory.
“The UK is our home market and our most important one. But we also focus on our European markets too, supporting them from the UK.”
At its Chessington base, the company’s workforce is currently 40 strong, while six
employees operate across Europe.
A different approach is required to support the needs of customers on the continent to that used in the UK, says Limpenny.
“European markets are different to that in the UK, so it’s important to understand them
first,” he explains. “For example, Germany is less brand-orientated, which is why the range of products is wider there than in the UK.”
Looking ahead
So what next for the accessories distributor?
Last time we met Frequency, the company was preparing to move from 30 Barwell Business Park to number 44, an office three- and-a-half times bigger.
For now, there are no such plans in place for further expansion, says Limpenny.
“We’ve been at these offices for the past eight years or so and have no immediate plans to leave,” he says. “We have a good working space here, along with our warehouse which allows us to monitor our products.”
Similarly, the headcount isn’t likely to grow in the near future, with Frequency taking a wait-and-see approach to its strategy as it sees how the smartphone market continues to evolve.
“Our flat structure gives us the flexibility to make decisions quickly,” says Limpenny. “We’re in an industry that is continually evolving and at a point where we will continue to explore opportunities in accessories. We’ll continue to move along with the industry as it changes.”