Charles Wigoder

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Charles Wigoder (born 2 March 1960), is an English telecommunications entrepreneur, most associated with the Utility Warehouse Discount Club

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[edit] Biography

The son of The Right Honourable Lord Wigoder, QC PC[1] (his children are entitled to use The Honourable title), Charles studied Accountancy and Law at University of Kent[2].

Wigoder qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in 1984 and was subsequently employed by Kleinwort Securities as an investment analyst in the media and communication sectors - where he met Michael Green. Green later hired Wigoder in 1985 as head of corporate finance and development at television services company Carlton Communications, to accelerate growth of the organisation; whilst he was there, turnover grew from under £5m to over £200m. He subsequently moved to Sangers Photographic, a USM listed wholesaler of photographic equipment, where he spent a frenetic 9 months taking the business to a full stock market listing and expanding the group's activities to include a wide range of photographic, video and communications services.

[edit] Peoples Phone

Wigoder left Quadrant to set up Cellular Communications in March 1988, initially providing a mobile phone service to business customers through both a direct sales team and third party distributors. Demonstrating great vision and foresight, he was the first entrepreneur in the industry to recognise how consumers would transform the market, successfully positioning his Company to take advantage of this opportunity by creating the "Peoples Phone" brand and establishing his own national High Street retail presence (a model subsequently imitated by all the Network Operators). By opening over 180 showrooms in just 12 months, Wigoder helped drive the expansion in mobile phone usage within the United Kingdom, gaining around 10% of the UK market - the biggest non-network owned business in the industry and the UK's first true Virtual Network Operator. Within 4 years he had a built a market leading position, having overtaken all the other independent resellers who had started several years prior to his entry into the market, including substantial multi-national companies such as Thorn-EMI, Granada, Nokia, Marconi, Phillips, and Motorola. The business was highly cash generative, however a decision to write off all customer acquisition costs directly against profits mean't that the company reported a loss after taxation of £10.6m on turnover of £175m for the financial year ended 31 October 1995. Following a disagreement between the major shareholders on the future strategy for the Company, it was acquired by Vodafone in November 1996 for £77m; however Wigoder only collected £6.5M from the deal, as most of the company was owned by Venture Capital investors. Vodafone followed this deal with further acquisitions within the sector (namely Astec and Talkland in December 1996) giving it greater control over the customers using its network. According to Vodafones 1997 annual report and accounts, Peoples Phone made £4.1M in the period to end 1996[3][4][5]

[edit] Telecom Plus/Utility Warehouse

Wigoder joined Telecom Plus in 1998, investing heavily and listing it as a Plc on the London Stock Exchange (ticker = TEP). Its initial flagship product was the Smart Box, a free gadget that plugged into a phone socket and hunted out the best telephone call rates[6]

Wigoder believed that a low-cost route to market would prove to be a critical element in successfully promoting services to the residential market, and established a multi-level marketing system of agents across the United Kingdom. In just over 7 years, the business amassed over 200,000 domestic and small-business customers, 15,000 of whom were also Distributors, signing up new customers in return for a residual income and cheaper utilities themselves. Trading as the The Utility Warehouse, Telecom plus is a “virtual” retailer, with no shops and no advertising – just a highly effective Head Office with 200+ staff, most of whom are dedicated to providing award-winning customer service. Wigoder says: “The secret of our success has been our unique business model. We also have the ability to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities.”

Low costs allow Telecom Plus to offer competitive tariffs to their customers, which has driven sales growth by an average of more than 20% pa over the years to 2007. Since 2003, the Company has been highly profitable and cash generative, although in November 2005, Telecom Plus warned that high energy prices had resulted in significant losses in its gas business. In February 2006, the Company entered into an agreement with npower under which they took responsibility for purchasing the energy used by UW customers although UW remain responsible for all customer management activities, such as billing, customer service, metering, debt collection and administration. As part of the arrangements, npower have an option to acquire the 29.9% of the equity held by the Board during 2009.

On 6 June 2006 the group said losses experienced in its gas business during the first two months of 2006 reached almost £8m, off-setting the profits of £5.5m achieved during the first half-year. As a result of the losses, the group posted an overall pre-tax loss for the year of £1.6m, compared with a £10.5m profit the previous year. Turnover rose 33% to £136.3m. For the following year to 31 March 2007, Telecom Plus reported turnover had increased to £175m, with record pre-tax profits of £11.5m, and cash balances of over £25m with no debt. The latest year to 31 March 2008 saw a further increase in pre-tax profits to over £16.5m with cash balances of over £30m. [7].

[edit] Personal life

Married to Elizabeth, the couple have a son (born 1990), and three girls (born 1992, 1995 and 1999). The couple have homes in London and the Cote d'Azur[8]. Wigoder is an expert bridge player who won the prestigious Cavendish Invitational Teams in 2004.

[edit] Politics

Wigoder has supported the Conservative Party, and gave a direct donation to Liam Fox in his 2005 Leadership bid to replace Michael Howard, running against David Cameron[9] He later lent the Conservatives £100,000 as a beneficial loan, as outlined in the 31 March 2006 statement by party chairman Francis Maude[10][11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lord Wigoder, QC (1921-2004)
  2. ^ http://www.kent.ac.uk/studying/why/alumni/index.html
  3. ^ Sunday Times - Rich List
  4. ^ Vodafone
  5. ^ http://www.vodafone.com/download/investor/reports/annual97/4/67.htm
  6. ^ Sunday Times - Rich List
  7. ^ Telegraph Shares & Funds
  8. ^ One hot share to watch this month!
  9. ^ Liam Fox MP, Woodspring (TheyWorkForYou.com)
  10. ^ http://www.conservatives.com/getfile.cfm?file=FinancialReview-2006&ref=GENUPLOAD/1843&type=pdf
  11. ^ Statement on Conservative party funding | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

[edit] External links