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LEBARA Mobile has recently announced two high-profile partnerships with retailer, Tesco and high-street brand, Woolworths, to sell its SIM cards and airtime across 1,900 Tesco stores* and 819 Woolworths stores* nationwide, increasing its distribution network in the UK to over 90,000 outlets, a major achievement for a company which launched less than nine months ago. The company has also recently received two major industry awards. Lebara Mobile SIM cards are available in 90 selected Tesco stores and 525 Woolworth’s stores.
Business Echo went to see Robert Gaskin, UK Country Manager for Lebara Mobile, to find out more about the company’s success.
Q. Firstly, what would you say has been the most significant factor behind the rapid growth of the company?
There are several key factors in our success, which include our competitive pricing, and the fact that we have kept ahead in a fast moving industry, offering an innovative product to our customers. What we offer is high quality, low cost rates for both national and international calls.
Q. How important are the two new partnerships for Lebara?
Retail partnerships are key to our continuing success in the UK. Through the new partnerships with Tesco and Woolworths, we have immediately raised our profile within the telecoms industry while offering our customers an additional 2,719 outlets where they can top-up or even purchase their Lebara Mobile SIM card.
Such partnerships form part of our overall strategy of having strong availability in key areas, giving even greater access to customers who want to benefit from low cost national and international calls.
Q. What other retail outlets offer the Lebara Mobile SIM Cards and top-up?
In addition to Tesco and Woolworths, Lebara Mobile airtime is available in all 800 Sainsbury’s stores, Costcutter, Budgens, the Post Office®, Martin McColl, Londis, Welcome Break and Phones 4U in addition to many independent retail outlets servicing local communities.
Customers can pretty much top up wherever they see the green ‘Top Up Here’ logo, but can also use the Lebara Mobile website or purchase top-ups in values of £5.00, £10.00 and £20.00.
Q. Can you sum up the Lebara Mobile business in the UK?
Lebara Mobile entered the UK Market at the end of October 2007 to help meet the needs of UK ethnic consumers.
In 2001, there were 4.6 million ethnic consumers according to the census of that year, and there has been a steady increase in this sector in the ensuing years.
Ethnic customers are both mobile-savvy and very price conscious, often using prepaid calling cards in conjunction with landlines as their main tool for making international calls. Lebara Mobile satisfied a need by offering competitive low cost rates without the inconvenience of PIN numbers and throwaway calling cards.
Q. So what exactly does Lebara Mobile offer its customers and how does it work?
Lebara Mobile is a Pay- As-You-Go service which offers low cost, high quality rates to call abroad. It is bought as a SIM pack which is inserted in to an unlocked handset and topped up like any Pay-As-You-Go Mobile service.
The SIM cards enable customers to make both national and international calls directly and conveniently from their mobile phones. The SIM is available to buy as stand-alone SIM card or as part of a handset bundle from www.lebaramobile. co.uk website and they are compatible with all standard UK mobile handsets.
Q. What makes Lebara Mobile different from the every day calling cards you buy off the street?
What differentiates Lebara Mobile from calling cards is that the Lebara Mobile SIM card can be used like any other mobile Pay- As-You-Go product, so the customer can store the number on the handset and call an international number directly with no PIN numbers to input.
In summary: it’s easier to use with no access codes, there are no hidden charges or lost minutes, and it offers peace of mind from reliable, instant connections. Our mobile network covers over 99% of the UK population and we have a very simple, clear pricing plan.
Q. Rates to Africa appear to be quite competitive; what are your current rates to the African countries?
Call costs to Africa vary from 5p a minute to Nigeria and South Africa; from 7p a minute to Ghana and from 8p a minute to Kenya.
All our charges for both landline and mobile are listed on the website www.lebara-mobile.co.uk.
Q. Your core users are ethnic residents, but what is your commitment to these communities in the UK?
Through retail partnerships such as Tesco, Woolworths, Sainsbury’s, Budgens and Costcutter, to name just a few, we are committed to ensuring that our customers have even greater access to and ease of use in topping up their Lebara Mobile SIM cards. More importantly, we are not just within the large retailer sector but also in smaller independent shops that cater to their immediate communities.
We are also involved in a number of community initiatives including sponsorship or support of several events including the Ghana Family Fun Day and Notting Hill Carnival.
We’ve also recently supported the Afro Hair & Beauty Show, Rise-London United and the Nigerian and Tottenham Carnivals.
Q. Which countries are the most popular calling destinations for Lebara?
Our biggest markets are Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana; the Eastern European countries, particularly Poland; China; the Philippines; South Africa and South Asia.
Q. And, lastly, any further expansion plans or announcements?
We are committed to building on our core Mobile services, keeping our pricing highly competitive and introducing incremental valueadded services tailored to our customers’ needs. We will continue to focus on this for the foreseeable future.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and will drive the direction the company takes in the future.
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