Phones 4u

In 1987, John Caudwell and his brother Brian founded Midlands Mobile Phones, a wholesaler and distributor of mobile phones. The company became the Caudwell Group, whose high street retail arm was named Phones 4u.


On 26 September 2006, The Caudwell Group was sold for a sum of £1.47 billion to private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Doughty Hanson & Co.^[4] In February 2008, the group bought online retailer Dialaphone in a deal worth an estimated £9 million.^[5]


In July 2010, Phones 4u partnered with electrical chain Dixons to place 49 concessions inside Currys and PC World stores.^[6] This number increased to over one hundred. However, following a merger between Dixons and rival phone shop, Carphone Warehouse, it was announced that this partnership would not be renewed.


The group was acquired by private equity group BC Partners in March 2011. The deal, estimated to be worth in the region of £700 million, was agreed several months after talks with a United States private equity owner ended.^[7] In April 2012, Phones 4u's contract with provider Three was terminated.^[8] In January 2014, O2 ended their contract with Phones 4u.^[9]


On 15 September 2014, Phones 4u entered administration, after the two remaining suppliers EE and Vodafone terminated their contracts. Stores closed, and both the Phones 4u and Dial-A-Phone websites were taken offline, pending a decision by the administrators.^[1][2]


On 19 September 2014, Vodafone reached an agreement with the administrators of Phones 4u to take over and rebrand 140 stores. It was also revealed that 628 employees at the head office in Newcastle-Under-Lyme would be made redundant.^[10]


On 22 September 2014, EE reached an agreement with Phones 4u's administrators to take over and rebrand 58 stores, while Dixons Carphone revealed that they would transfer 800 employees to its Currys and PC World stores.^[11]


On 23 September 2014, administrators PwC announced that close to 1,700 jobs would be lost.^[12]


On 14 October 2014, EE announced that it would acquire mobile virtual network operator Life Mobile from Phones 4u's administrators.^[13][14]


The 4u Group consisted of the following entities:

Sales and service[edit]

Before 2008, complaints surfaced about shoppers feeling pressured by hard sell tactics for phone insurance, negative service perceptions and high staff turnover.^[15] The retailer retrained staff and eliminated some of its more aggressive practices, including street-fighting, the practice of sales people standing in shop doorways to lure customers.^[15][16]


In November 2008, Ofcom found Phones 4u guilty of misleading customers over network coverage, failing to swiftly provide refunds for faulty handsets and offering unfair terms on chequeback schemes. Phones 4u responded with a series of undertakings to prevent recurrences.^[17] The company said 80% of complaints were due to problems in its repair business, rather than sales, which the company was in the process of resolving.^[18][19]


After six months of scrutiny, the Ofcom investigation resulted in minor changes to terms and conditions. Phones 4u subsequently changed its repair provider.


Turnover for the mobile phone retailer grew 22% in 2010, rising from £746m to £911m.^[20] The group employed over 8,000 people worldwide and sold 26 phones every minute.^[21] In November 2011 it was reported that despite the company's turnover having increased, the rising cost of providing insurance with smartphones had contributed to a 25% loss of earnings.^[22]