A Derbyshire mobile phone company which grew from operating a single shop in Alfreton to selling millions of handsets across the UK every year has brought its staff and suppliers together to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
A1 Comms employs 198 people in the town and at its call centre at Darley Abbey Mills in Derby, and has just notched up its first quarter of a century, having established itself as one of the county’s biggest success stories and posting an annual turnover of £156m.
Founded by Derby-born Paul Sisson, the company operates four separate brands – Buymobiles, Affordable Mobiles, phones.co.uk and its B2B telephony service provider Yappl – and sells phones and contracts on behalf of the biggest names in the industry, including Apple, Samsung, EE and O2.
Such is its reach and influence that it can offer deals that other suppliers cannot, and one in five of the estimated 71.8m mobile phone contracts currently active in the UK were arranged through one of A1 Comm’s brands.
Picture shows: Paul Sisson (CEO of A1 Comms and Yappl), James Bannister (Solutions Director at Yappl), Mark Eldridge (Business Development Director at A1 Comms), Rebecca Dallman (School Business Manager at Alfreton Park School), Josie O’Donnell (Headteacher at Alfreton Park School, which is a charity partner for the firm), Victoria Fearnley (HR Director at A1 Comms), Tonia Baldwin (Sales Director at Yappl) and Adam Chadwick (Commercial Director at A1 Comms), at the company’s 25th anniversary celebration at Derbyshire Cricket Club.
The company recently celebrated its success at an event held at Derbyshire County Cricket Club, where around 160 people gathered and reflected on how A1 Comms has grown since it started life in 1997.
Back then, mobile phone use was in its infancy, with just 16% of households in the UK owning one. At the time, Paul was selling office supplies, but was asked by a client if he could provide him with a mobile.
This gave Paul the idea to specialise in mobiles, and before long he opened his first shop – A1 Comms, in the centre of Alfreton – so named because Paul wanted to get to the top of the listings in the Yellow Pages.
However, nine years later Paul decided that he would make more money selling mobiles online and sold what was by now a chain of shops for £600,000. The money was invested into a website called BuyMobilePhones, which later changed its name to Buymobiles.
Four years later, the company was ranked at Number 1 in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, having recorded sales of £24.5m, and the name also appeared on Derby County Football Club’s famous white shirts after Paul agreed to sponsor his boyhood team.
The Rams wore the shirts when they visited Wembley in the 2014 Championship Play-off final, where they narrowly lost to Queens Park Rangers, but eight years on, while Derby County have still yet to reach the Premier League, Buymobiles and A1 Comms have gone from strength to strength.
This summer the business added another brand to its growing portfolio in the shape of Ka-Ching, a trade-in offer for customers to sell their old mobile at the best market price, so that it can be recycled or refurbished for resale.
Paul said: “Nobody could have imagined back in 1997 what we would go on to achieve. At the time we said that surviving the month was the aim, but we’ve managed three hundred so far and gone on to be one of the biggest mobile phone retailers in the UK.
“There have been some setbacks and high points along the way, including sponsoring Derby County, and as a local company that employs plenty of Rams supporters, that’s something we can look back on with pleasure.
“We’ve also seen mobile phones and the wider industry change enormously over the past 25 years and we’ve grown throughout everything that has happened. Congratulations to all our staff who have made that happen and here’s to the next 25 years!”
For more information visit www.a1comms.com.
ENDS
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