Carphone Warehouse
 |
|
| Private limited company | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Founder | Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie |
| Headquarters | North Acton, London, United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
Sir Charles Dunstone (Chairman) Andrew Harrison (CEO) |
| Products |
Home and Mobile telephone equipment and services |
| Revenue | £10.7 million (2013) |
| £57.1 million (2013) | |
| £4.2 million (2013) | |
|
Number of employees
|
over 11,500 |
| Parent | Dixons Carphone |
| Website | www |
Carphone Warehouse is a British mobile phone retailer, with over 2,400 stores across Europe. It trades as Carphone Warehouse in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and as Phone House elsewhere.
The company has been a subsidiary of Dixons Carphone since 7 August 2014, which was formed by the merger of its former parent Carphone Warehouse Group with Dixons Retail. Carphone Warehouse Group was listed on the and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The company was co-founded in 1989, when most portable phones were too bulky to carry and called car phones, by current Chairman Sir Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie. Brownlie and Dunstone put £6,000 into the company from their savings. In 1990 Dunstone then called his old school friend and Chartered Accountant David Ross, who agreed to become Finance Director. Based originally in Dunstone's rented flat on the Marylebone Road, London, four years later the company had grown to 20 stores.
While Dunstone became the public face of the Carphone Warehouse, David Ross (described by Dunstone as his "secret weapon"), developed and drove the high street retail footprint of the company by buying Tandy in the United Kingdom for £9 million in January 1999. Dunstone approached old customer Guy Johnson of NEC UK – later described by one City analyst as "the Ringo Starr of Carphone Warehouse" for being in the right place at the right time – to become the third partner, later taking up the role of Logistics and Distribution director.
David Ross led the footprint development of the company, under The Phone House brand, across Europe and the United States.
When the IPO of Carphone Warehouse took place in 2000 Charles Dunstone owned half, David Ross a third, and Johnson most of the rest.
Johnson sold the majority of his stake in 2001 and retired with his young family to his holiday home in Portugal.
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Wikipedia