Following the departure of yet another member of the team, it seems the Brightstar business is not doing as well as expected.
Colin Sarratt, Sales Director of Brightstar, has now left the company citing family reasons, having only been recruited six months ago to build relationships with networks and retailers. Previously, Sarratt was with European Telecom for 10 years.
Sarratt said: ‘We built a strong team with some great people. I have no doubt Brightstar will be a force to be reckoned with, and I wish the team all the very best of luck and thank them for their support.’
However, only a few weeks ago Christina Meade quit the company after just two months in her position as European business development director. Phil Sambrook, head of dealer sales also made an early exit having only joined from Carphone Warehouse earlier in the year.
Rumours abound that the Brightstar model is not working, and people have decided to leave as there's nothing for them to do. This seems to be backed up by claims from other distributors that they've received CVs from several Brighstar employees, and contracts are not being renewed for those hired to bring in new business.
It appears some customers are reluctant to move from 20:20 out of loyalty. with very little business to go around with one source stating “Brightstar has paid top dollar to get people in before even building the business. It needs customer contracts before pressuring manufacturers.”
Brightstar has contracts with Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung direct, but Samsung have not as yet signed a full UK contract. Mark Mitchinson at Samsung said: “We have given Brightstar no firm commitment, but it is buying some of our products.”
Brightstar is having to source Nokia handsets indirectly in the UK. Simon Ainslie, Nokia UK managing director said: “We have nothing for Brightstar in the short term. We have not placed them on a trial. We may look at them again next year.”
Sarratt won't be replaced, leaving Richard Baxendale, MD, Gareth Goddard, purchasing and product manager, John Doughty, commercial director, Will Gulliver, operations manager and Simon Charters, finance director to run the show, having to rely on the back-office and sales team of its partner Tech Data.
Sarratt said: ‘We built a strong team with some great people. I have no doubt Brightstar will be a force to be reckoned with, and I wish the team all the very best of luck and thank them for their support.’
However, only a few weeks ago Christina Meade quit the company after just two months in her position as European business development director. Phil Sambrook, head of dealer sales also made an early exit having only joined from Carphone Warehouse earlier in the year.
Rumours abound that the Brightstar model is not working, and people have decided to leave as there's nothing for them to do. This seems to be backed up by claims from other distributors that they've received CVs from several Brighstar employees, and contracts are not being renewed for those hired to bring in new business.
It appears some customers are reluctant to move from 20:20 out of loyalty. with very little business to go around with one source stating “Brightstar has paid top dollar to get people in before even building the business. It needs customer contracts before pressuring manufacturers.”
Brightstar has contracts with Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung direct, but Samsung have not as yet signed a full UK contract. Mark Mitchinson at Samsung said: “We have given Brightstar no firm commitment, but it is buying some of our products.”
Brightstar is having to source Nokia handsets indirectly in the UK. Simon Ainslie, Nokia UK managing director said: “We have nothing for Brightstar in the short term. We have not placed them on a trial. We may look at them again next year.”
Sarratt won't be replaced, leaving Richard Baxendale, MD, Gareth Goddard, purchasing and product manager, John Doughty, commercial director, Will Gulliver, operations manager and Simon Charters, finance director to run the show, having to rely on the back-office and sales team of its partner Tech Data.