Martin Dawes Communications Ltd is to distribute and market exclusively Oki Electric Industry Co’s CDL 700E cellular phone in the UK, in what the two companies say is the start of a long-term European association in mobile communications (CI No 1,164). The phone is Oki’s first own-label product in the UK; it is currently manufactured in Japan and Georgia, but the Japanese industrial giant has plans to make them in Europe, and may choose its Cumbernauld, Fife plant, which manufactures laser printers. With its 600 dealers, Warrington, Cheshire-based Martin Dawes aims to achieve 15% market share with the 700E, and hopes to have it available in France by the end of the year, in readiness for the introduction of the Pan European phone system. Martin Dawes says his company will embark on a policy of acquisitions and mergers; it has just bought Sussex company VP Communications Ltd, and is searching for more cellular companies. The companies claim the CDL 700E has a 10% share of the US market and, at just over a pound, is the smallest and lightest hand portable ETACS phone to reach the UK market; it gives 1,320 channels. Martin Dawes will set a retail price ceiling of UKP700 on its distributors, and says it will set aside an advertising spend of UKP1m as part of the phones’ UK launch.
