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The Link (retailer)
Encyclopedia
The Link was an internet-based mobile phone
and communications retailer in the United Kingdom
. It is owned by Dixons Retail (formerly DSG International), the UK's largest consumer electronics retail group, and traded online through a dedicated retail website, which in addition to mobile phones also offered satellite navigation systems and broadband
internet
services.
The brand was previously used for a chain of mobile phone retail stores which were 60% owned by DSGi, and 40% owned by O2
, the telecommunications company. (At the time of The Link's retail store operation, O2 was a subsidiary of BT, but the network is now owned by Telefonica
of Spain
.)
As of June 2006, the retail store network was taken over in its entirety by O2; The Link's website, which remains owned by DSG, continued to trade independently of the stores.
As of 2010, The Link website was largely closed and ceased taking new orders, directing customers to visit the site of sister firm Currys
; however, the site also provided details of customer service contacts for prior customers of The Link.
(formerly Dixons
) and Currys
chains, but opened a separate chain to provide more capacity for the growth in mobile phone sales.
As of August 2005, there were 295 branches of The Link, spread across the UK. The Link's annual sales in 2004–05 were £428 million.
Nick Wood, who as managing director of The Link had overseen the unit's growth, was subsequently moved across DSGi to take over the running of the then-struggling Dixons chain. After substantially turning around the fortunes of Dixons, he was brought back to The Link to replace his own replacement, Elizabeth Fagan, after the comparatively poorer performance of The Link under her management. Wood quickly made his mark, applying an easier to understand commission structure, placing "live" models of phones in stores, and expanded the product range to include MP3 players and Satellite navigation systems.
The Link also replaced their long-running advertising campaign (featuring a specially-rerecorded version of "Speak Easy" by Shed Seven
) with new comedy sketches featuring the Ken and Kenneth characters from The Fast Show
filmed outside the Islington
Link store. A new logo was created, and the in-store look was dramatically overhauled. "Music" was seen as the main focus of The Link from that point, according to Nick Wood, and he hoped that would turn the fortunes around.
O2's purchase of The Link meant that some stores were rebranded as O2, whilst non-retained sites were sold to others. Overall, of the 295 Link stores, around half were rebranded as O2, with the majority of the remainder being sold to competing telecoms retailers such as Orange
, T-Mobile
, Phones 4U
, and 3, with 3 in particular being able to expand their previously smaller store network significantly with a number of former Link sites. (In some cases, such as the Bexleyheath Shopping Centre, O2 moved from their own previous site to the Link site, and released their previous store to another operator - in Bexleyheath's case this was 3.) A small percentage of sites were closed or sold to non-mobile phone related companies, such as Costa Coffee
.
The majority of Link staff in these stores remained employed by the new store owners, under Transfer of Undertakings (2006) UK regulations.
and mobile services. The Link also offered a range of portable consumer electronics such as iPod
s, Sat Navs and Laptops, as well as LCD televisions; these products were available either as gift incentives with mobile phone contracts, or for separate purchase.
As of 2010, The Link website was largely closed and replaced with a link to the Currys webpage.
, Carphone Warehouse and Dial-a-Phone
, who offer a variety of networks to their customers.
The Link also had competition from the networks' own shops, namely 3, O2
, Orange
, T-Mobile
, Vodafone
and Virgin Mobile
, as well as prepay competition from the likes of Woolworths
and Argos
. This was the reason for the late adoption of Vodafone as a post-pay
network, which did not take place until 2002.
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
and communications retailer in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is owned by Dixons Retail (formerly DSG International), the UK's largest consumer electronics retail group, and traded online through a dedicated retail website, which in addition to mobile phones also offered satellite navigation systems and broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
services.
The brand was previously used for a chain of mobile phone retail stores which were 60% owned by DSGi, and 40% owned by O2
O2 plc
Telefónica Europe plc is a European broadband and telecommunications company that trades as O2 . The company originated as a collection of worldwide telecommunications companies, known in the later half of the 1990s as BT Wireless, and a global mobile data business known then as Genie Internet,...
, the telecommunications company. (At the time of The Link's retail store operation, O2 was a subsidiary of BT, but the network is now owned by Telefonica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.)
As of June 2006, the retail store network was taken over in its entirety by O2; The Link's website, which remains owned by DSG, continued to trade independently of the stores.
As of 2010, The Link website was largely closed and ceased taking new orders, directing customers to visit the site of sister firm Currys
Currys
Currys is an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland and is owned by Dixons Retail plc. It specialises in selling home electronics and household appliances, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores...
; however, the site also provided details of customer service contacts for prior customers of The Link.
History
DSG International opened the first branch of The Link in 1994 due to the demand for mobile phones and other communications products. DSG International also sells mobile phones in its Currys.digitalCurrys.digital
Currys Digital is an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom, that is owned by DSG International plc.With its origins in a photographic shop opened by Charles Kalms, the chain now has a store in most towns and cities across the UK and Ireland...
(formerly Dixons
Dixons
Dixons is an online retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is owned by Dixons Retail plc.With its origins in a photographic shop opened by Charles Kalms, the chain had a store in most towns and cities across the UK and Ireland...
) and Currys
Currys
Currys is an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland and is owned by Dixons Retail plc. It specialises in selling home electronics and household appliances, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores...
chains, but opened a separate chain to provide more capacity for the growth in mobile phone sales.
As of August 2005, there were 295 branches of The Link, spread across the UK. The Link's annual sales in 2004–05 were £428 million.
Nick Wood, who as managing director of The Link had overseen the unit's growth, was subsequently moved across DSGi to take over the running of the then-struggling Dixons chain. After substantially turning around the fortunes of Dixons, he was brought back to The Link to replace his own replacement, Elizabeth Fagan, after the comparatively poorer performance of The Link under her management. Wood quickly made his mark, applying an easier to understand commission structure, placing "live" models of phones in stores, and expanded the product range to include MP3 players and Satellite navigation systems.
The Link also replaced their long-running advertising campaign (featuring a specially-rerecorded version of "Speak Easy" by Shed Seven
Shed Seven
Shed Seven are an English indie rock band from York and were one of the groups which contributed to the Britpop music scene that evolved during the 1990s, yet never received the degree of mainstream success achieved by bands such as Oasis and Blur...
) with new comedy sketches featuring the Ken and Kenneth characters from The Fast Show
The Fast Show
The Fast Show, known as Brilliant in the US, was a BBC comedy sketch show programme that ran for three series from 1994 to 1997 with a special Last Fast Show Ever in 2000. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and...
filmed outside the Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
Link store. A new logo was created, and the in-store look was dramatically overhauled. "Music" was seen as the main focus of The Link from that point, according to Nick Wood, and he hoped that would turn the fortunes around.
O2 buys out DSGi share
On June 21, 2006, DSG sold their 60% share of The Link to O2 for £30 Million. The deal included all of The Link's stores.O2's purchase of The Link meant that some stores were rebranded as O2, whilst non-retained sites were sold to others. Overall, of the 295 Link stores, around half were rebranded as O2, with the majority of the remainder being sold to competing telecoms retailers such as Orange
Orange SA
Orange is the brand used by France Télécom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries. It is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world, with 210 million customers . The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile phone network, which was...
, T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
, Phones 4U
Phones 4U
Phones 4u is a large independent mobile phone retailer in the UK. It is part of the 4u Group based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. Since opening in 1996, it has expanded to over 550 stores throughout the United Kingdom. - Company Background :...
, and 3, with 3 in particular being able to expand their previously smaller store network significantly with a number of former Link sites. (In some cases, such as the Bexleyheath Shopping Centre, O2 moved from their own previous site to the Link site, and released their previous store to another operator - in Bexleyheath's case this was 3.) A small percentage of sites were closed or sold to non-mobile phone related companies, such as Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse company founded in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Since 1995 it has been a subsidiary of Whitbread, since when the company has grown to over...
.
The majority of Link staff in these stores remained employed by the new store owners, under Transfer of Undertakings (2006) UK regulations.
Online-only trading
As of January 31, 2007, no branches of The Link remained open. TheLink.com and TheLink.co.uk is still owned by DSGi, and following the closure of The Link stores the websites continued selling pay monthly and pay-as-you-go mobile phones on Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Virgin Mobile and Three as well as mobile broadbandBroadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
and mobile services. The Link also offered a range of portable consumer electronics such as iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
s, Sat Navs and Laptops, as well as LCD televisions; these products were available either as gift incentives with mobile phone contracts, or for separate purchase.
As of 2010, The Link website was largely closed and replaced with a link to the Currys webpage.
Competition
The Link's main competitors were Phones 4UPhones 4U
Phones 4u is a large independent mobile phone retailer in the UK. It is part of the 4u Group based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. Since opening in 1996, it has expanded to over 550 stores throughout the United Kingdom. - Company Background :...
, Carphone Warehouse and Dial-a-Phone
Dial-a-Phone
Dialaphone is an independent mobile phone retailer in the United Kingdom. It was established in February 1995 as a direct marketer and supplier of mobile phones and mobile phone accessories. The e-commerce website went online in September 2000...
, who offer a variety of networks to their customers.
The Link also had competition from the networks' own shops, namely 3, O2
O2 plc
Telefónica Europe plc is a European broadband and telecommunications company that trades as O2 . The company originated as a collection of worldwide telecommunications companies, known in the later half of the 1990s as BT Wireless, and a global mobile data business known then as Genie Internet,...
, Orange
Orange SA
Orange is the brand used by France Télécom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries. It is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world, with 210 million customers . The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile phone network, which was...
, T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
, Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
and Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile is a brand used by many mobile phone service providers across the globe; its headquarters are based in the United Kingdom. Virgin Mobile has local operations in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, Greece, United Kingdom and the United States. It briefly also had operations...
, as well as prepay competition from the likes of Woolworths
Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...
and Argos
Argos (retailer)
Argos is the largest general-goods retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland with over 800 stores. It is unique amongst major retailers in the UK in that it is a catalogue merchant...
. This was the reason for the late adoption of Vodafone as a post-pay
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
network, which did not take place until 2002.