The mobile phone retail market expects to see 4.3-4.4 million units sold this year, after around 4 million mobile phones were sold in 2006, Gabriel Pircalabu, managing director of Avenir Telecom Romania, the domestic branch of the French group Avenir Telecom, told ZF.
He says that the market trend in 2006 was heavily influenced by the aggressive campaigns conducted by mobile phone operators such as Cosmote Romania, as well as by specialised store chains that switched to other telecom operators.
The French group is present in Romania through its two store networks specialised in the retail of GSM terminals and accessories- Internity and GlobalNet, and also distributes GSM terminals and accessories to hypermarkets, specialised store networks and other authorised resellers.
Starting in spring of last year, the Internity store network, a brand held globally by Avenir Telecom, gained exclusive rights for the sale of products and services for Romanian mobile telephony operator Cosmote, in its stores. Prior to the move, Internity had been a partner of Orange Romania. The network that operates under the GlobalNet brand exclusively provides Vodafone Romania products and services.
The Avenir official estimates that by the end of March 2008, Avenir Telecom Romania will be present on the market with 100 GlobalNet stores, compared with 50 at present, and with 150 stores in the Internity network, which now numbers 90 stores.
"We want to achieve the right mix of high-street stores and stores within malls, taking into consideration the market focus towards malls, without however, neglecting the areas not serviced by such shopping centres," stressed Pircalabu, who does not rule out the possible acquisition of small stores, or smaller GSM retail store chains in order to achieve this aim. "We do not have a budget set for acquisitions, but wherever the opportunity arises, we will be open to acquisitions," Pircalabu added.
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