Vodafone hands over management of 73 stores to Fonomat

Vodafone, no. 2 on the Romanian mobile telephony market, has decided to hand over management of the 73-store Proton chain to GSM retailer Fonomat, which sells only Vodafone products.

Fonomat is owned by GED investment fund and has 79 stores. Proton will continue to be owned by Vodafone, which also holds several tens of Vodafone stores directly, as well as having contracts with distribution chains.

In 2009, Fonomat posted a 300,000-euro gross profit amid a 21 million-euro turnover. Fonomat had been an exclusive Orange partner until last year, no. 1 in terms of revenues on the telecom market.

Proton posted a 4 million-euro turnover in 2009.

Telecom companies sell mobile phones, laptops and accessories only through the networks with which they have exclusive distribution contracts, i.e. customers cannot find phones and call plans from Orange, Vodafone, Cosmote and RCS-RDS on the same shelf of the same store, which would help them decide which is the best or the cheapest, but only in separate stores.