BURNABY, B.C. – Glentel Inc. announced yesterday it has opened its first retail store in Manila, Philippines, through its Australian retail division, AMT Group Pty.
The Marikina Allphones store in Manila is the first of up to 250 mobile phone stores planned for the capital city and surrounding islands of the Philippines.
Glentel became a majority shareholder of AMT Group in November 2012, after purchasing 83% of its shares for $67.7 million. AMT Group, which operates 200 retail mobile phone stores in Australia, signed a retail management services agreement with Tao Corporation , based in Makati City, Philippines, to open the Marikina Allphones stores.
“The opening of our Marikina Allphones store marks a significant milestone for our AMT Group as Marikina is our first retail outlet outside of Australia,” said Shaun Colligan, managing director of Glentel’s AMT Group, in a release. “The prospect of having up to 250 outlets in the Philippines is one that not only provides a huge new opportunity for our people but also allows a new and exciting growth avenue for the Group.”
With a population of 95 million, Glentel president and CEO Thomas Skidmore, said the new Philippines stores are “a wonderful opportunity for our AMT Group and our Australia management team to expand into Southeast Asia, providing our retail management services expertise and leveraging our proprietary mobile phone retail system in the Philippines with Tao Corporation.”
Under the agreement, AMT will license its Allphones brand and store design to the project, and will also provide software, technology and consultation to TAO to support the management of the new retail store network.
Glentel is the largest independent multi-carrier mobile phone retailer in Canada, operating more than 1,200 stores and business centres in Canada, the U.S., Australia and the Philippines.
