News 2003
Record Sales, Record Quarter, Record Year for Virgin Mobile
23/01/2003
- Q4 2002 was the greatest sales period in Virgin Mobile’s history
- 370,530 net connections in Q4 2002 (60% up on 232,300 in Q3 2002)
- Year on year growth increases by 40% (Q4 2002 v Q4 2001 of 264,359)
- Total customers 2,383,912 (31st December 2002)
- 938,420 new customers during 2002
- An increase of 65% on the closing base at end Q4 2001
- 2002 revenue of £290m
- Customer base ARPU of £136
Virgin Mobile has broken all sales records, reporting its largest ever quarterly sales figure, best ever Christmas trading period, and its strongest ever yearly performance since its launch in November 1999.
During the fourth quarter 2002 Virgin Mobile bucked the UK high street trend of slow Christmas trading to outperform its targets. The company attracted 370,530 net new customers during October, November and December of 2002, which was up 60% on the previous quarter, and increased its customer numbers by 65% year on year.
Sales for the whole of 2002 were also the best in Virgin Mobile’s history. A target of 2.1 million customers was passed by some margin, with 938,420 joining over the 12 months, resulting in a base of almost 2.4m by the end of December.
Virgin Mobile’s turnover in 2002 was also ahead of target, reaching £290m by the end of the year.
Virgin Mobile has also reported its revenue figures, with an annual ARPU of £136 (see table 2), which is among the highest of any prepay ARPU in the industry.
Virgin Mobile’s Sir Richard Branson said: “2002 was the best year in Virgin Mobile’s history; the year in which it truly proved to be the great success we always knew it would be. It was the year we acquired our two-millionth customer; it was the year we went into profit; and it was the year our turnover reached £290 million. 2003 is going to be even better – by the end of the year we will have more than three million customers, and a turnover in excess of £400m. Virgin Mobile is proving to be one of the most formidable companies in the Virgin empire, and one of the most dynamic in the telecoms industry.”
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For further information please contact:
Virgin Mobile:
Press office on 0845 600 6272 or pressoffice@virginmobile.com
Steven Day - 07931 777777, steven.day@virginmobile.com
Alison Bonny - 07802 430276, Alison.bonny@virginmobile.com
Joanne Baker - 07941 233300, Joanne.baker@virginmobile.com
Consolidated Communications:
Rebecca Fitzgerald - 0797 1661579, rebeccaf@consol.co.uk
Piers Newson-Smith - 07867 520532, piersn@consol.co.uk
Julia Clark - 07941 230500, juliac@consol.co.uk
Table 1
| Virgin Mobile Data | Q2 ‘02 | Q3 ‘02 | Q4 ‘02 | Q1 ‘03 | Q2 ’03 |
| CUSTOMER NUMBERS | |||||
| Net Additions | 171,367 | 232,300 | 370,530 | 253,000 | 231,554 |
| Customer Base (millions) | 1.781 | 2.013 | 2.384 | 2.637 | 2.869 |
| % Market Share | 3.80% | 4.16% | 4.78% | 5.31% | 5.6%(est) |
| Net Connections - Quarterly Growth | 4.35% | 35.56% | 59.5% | -31.7% | -8.5% |
| Customer Base - Quarterly Growth | 10.65% | 13.04% | 18.4% | 10.6% | 8.8% |
| Customer Base - Yearly Growth | 76.51% | 70.46% | 64.9% | 63.8% | 61.1% |
| FINANCIALS | |||||
| Turnover per Quarter (millions) | £65.8 | £75.1 | £92.2 | £94.5 | £102.2 |
| Turnover - Quarterly Growth | 13.4% | 14.1% | 22.8% | 2.5% | 8.1% |
Table 2
Prepay ARPU Comparison by Operator
The table below compares Virgin Mobile's prepay ARPU to the most recently published prepay data for the four competing operators.
| Operator | Date reported | Annual ARPU | % Var to VM ARPU |
| Virgin Mobile | Dec 31 2002 | £136 | |
| T Mobile | Sept 30 2002 | £150 | 10.3% |
| Orange | Sept 30 2002 | £124 | (8.8%) |
| mm02 | Sept 30 2002 | £112 | (17.6%) |
| Vodafone | Sept 30 2002 | £121 | (11.0%) |
About Virgin Mobile:
Virgin Mobile is now established as the most successful virtual network operator in the world, and is the UK's fifth network. Since its launch in November 1999 it has attracted 2.4 million customers, making it one of the fastest growing mobile phone companies in history.
Virgin Mobile is a 50:50 joint venture company between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, and is the UK's first mobile virtual operator.
It has scored a number of firsts, including being the first operator to scrap peak rate calls, introduce a daily discounting tariff, the first company in the world to introduce an integrated MP3 mobile phone and the first company to offer all of its customers a content-rich voice portal with the launch of its 4321 service.
In the UK, Virgin Mobile phones are available direct on 0845 6000 600; on the web at www.virginmobile.com; or on the High Street at over 6,000 outlets including Virgin Megastore, V.SHOP, Sanity, Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway, Jungle.com, Asda, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Argos, The Link, Dixons, Carphone Warehouse, Comet, Phones 4 U, TOMO, Woolworths, Toys R Us and Rymans.
Virgin Mobile employs 1,500 staff on three sites: Trowbridge, London and Daventry.
