RadioShack and Rogers Cantel are growing their retail networks through a new alliance.
Cantel is opening between 70 and 100 new stores under the Cantel banner, with RadioShack handling day-to-day operation and management of the majority of the stores.
Cantel will retain some sites as corporate stores and others will be dealer stores.
Mike Lacroix, director of sales support for Radio Shack, says lease negotiations for the new storefronts are now underway and the aim is to open as many as possible by October.
Most of the stores will be in malls.
Lacroix says the new relationship is a good fit because of the individual strengths of the two companies.
‘Cantel needed distribution and no one has more outlets than RadioShack,’ says Lacroix.
‘Beyond that, [Cantel] wanted to be able to showcase their products in their own stores under the Cantel banner, so they turned to us for help and guidance.’
Lacroix says the venture includes a dual-branding component that will see a small RadioShack Express store-within-a-store in each Cantel location and Cantel Wireless Specialists areas in all RadioShack stores.
RadioShack Express will feature top-selling items such as batteries and databank calculators while under the Cantel Wireless Specialists concept, RadioShack will eliminate all other wireless brands in its stores and carry only Cantel products.
The Cantel joint venture is not the only new project RadioShack has underway.
The company is one of the retail partners in the newly-launched Royal Bank Classic II Visa card. See story, p. 8.
RadioShack has also been staging an agency review, as well as searching for someone to take on the role of director of marketing.
Kara Beaubien, director of advertising for RadioShack, says she expects to announce her agency decision later this month.
She says the company has been handling advertising in-house for a number of years and is not looking to completely replace that department.
RadioShack and Cantel will each continue to advertise their brands separately.
Cantel agencies are Gee Jeffery & Partners and Ogilvy & Mather Direct, both of Toronto.
The Cantel/RadioShack alliance benefits both companies, particularly Cantel, which was looking to increase its consumer distribution network not only for its Amigo cellular products but for the launch of its new wireless network, Personal Communications Services or pcs.
Cantel already has more than 225 corporate stores and close to 135 affiliate sites.
RadioShack, which is headquartered in Barrie, Ont., has one of Canada’s largest retail distribution networks, with 450 corporate stores and another 400-plus authorized sales centres.
