Newcastle-based distributor Fone Logistics has sold its 14 Activmobile retail outlets to Go Mobile. Fone Logistics has had a retail arm for 10 years, but the Activmobile shops have never been a major profit centre and current trading conditions for retailers suggest that concentrating on the core business is the best option right now.
Daventry-based Go Mobile already has 39 stores, mostly in the Midlands, so the 14 Activmobile outlets in the North would represent a good fit.
Fone Logistics says it will use the transaction to “reposition the internal resource to its indirect dealer distribution business and will concentrate its efforts solely on developing its network relationships and capitalising on market opportunities, including the launch of the 3 Business proposition”.
Ian Gillespie, CEO at Fone Logistics commented “Fone Logistics is a distributor. Our primary focus is in supporting our dealers and working with them to develop sustainable long-term business ... To succeed in independent retail you need to live and breathe it and that is what Go Mobile do.”
Go Mobile’s MD Ian Humphrey agreed. “Our business model is built around achieving a critical mass of stores and in trading each of them to its max. We are pleased to have made this acquisition which represents the next step in Go Mobile’s development.”
As part of the deal, all existing Activmobile staff transferred to Go Mobile on 1 February and the stores began trading under the Go Mobile name from that date.