History
The company was co-founded in 1989, when most portable phones were too bulky to carry and called car phones, by current CEO 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. Now also trading as The Phone House, Carphone Warehouse is Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer.
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 UK. 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 David Ross led the IPO of Carphone Warehouse in 2000, it had been so successful that the partners had not needed to borrow or involve outsiders: Charles Dunstone owned half, David Ross a third, and Johnson most of the rest.
Only Johnson of the three partners had a family, and having according to media reports becoming less enamoured by the David Ross-led European expansion of the organisation, sold the majority of his stake in 2001 and retired with his young family to his holiday home in Portugal.
While David Ross had been joint-Chief Operating Officer with Charles Dunstone from 1990 and 2003, whereas Dunstone stayed with the business that he still runs today, Ross started to give up his executive position from 2003. Ross became deputy chairman in July 2005, and by 2008 was a non-executive director. David Ross resigned from the board in December 2008 over an issue with shares.
The group split in March 2010, with TalkTalk and New Carphone Warehouse becoming publicly listed companies. Charles Dunstone became Chairman of both companies. New Carphone Warehouse holds a 50% stake in Best Buy Europe and a 47.5% share in Virgin Mobile France. Dido Harding became CEO of TalkTalk and Roger Taylor CEO of New Carphone Warehouse.
Read more about this topic: Carphone Warehouse
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