From left to right, Red Cell officials Avian Hosein-Ali, manager of the El Socorro Store, Joe Pires Jr, chairman, Rafi Naqui, marketing manager and Mandy Anderson, administrative manager.

About nine weeks ago, on the night of March 24, businessman Joe Pires finally got the telephone call he had been waiting for since the end of November last year.

It was two weeks before Digicel opened for business and the long-awaited physical interconnection between TSTT’s bmobile network and Digicel’s network was working. The call, on Pires’s Digicel mobile phone, came for Red Cell to mobilise.

Red Cell is the largest single distributor of Digicel-branded phones in Trinidad. The company operates 13 Red Cell stores and three Digicel flagship stores.

“When you think of Digicel, we want you to think of Red Cell,” exclaims Pires, who took over the management of Caribbean Chemicals after the death of his father Joe Pires Snr 13 years ago.

Pires, who is the chairman of Bowen Boats and a director of Tony’s Roma’s and 51† on Cipriani Bouvelard, had been selling mobile phones for the last 12 years.

Jomatec, his cellular company at the time, was one of the first authorised dealers for TSTT. Four years ago, Joe met with Digicel officials when they came to Trinidad. He liked what they had to say and had to make a decision.

“When I saw these entrepreneurs... These are people who are putting their lives, their money, their investment and their time on the line. They were very receptive to my ideas, and to finding how we could work and have a good relationship. Digicel was encouraging entrepreneurship.”

In August last year, Pires signed the leases for his Red Cell locations. He was told that he had to be ready by November 30, 2005, the date that Digicel had set for its big launch. Then the opening date changed to December 15, 2005. Later, a press release was issued setting the new date as March 2006. Digicel eventually began retailing phones in the local market on April 6.

The company continued to pay rent right through the four-month delay. Construction and design modifications had to continue. All the projections changed. There was no money coming into the business and they were unable to continue to provide their new staff with employment.

“The capital costs that we incurred because of the delays created a lot of problems. It did hit our bottom line.”

On the night before the eventual April launch, Red Cell employees were busy getting the stores ready for the morning’s anticipated rush. Pires went to bed at 3 am, and started visiting his stores at 6 am. The employees were there early, all with little or no sleep, they were running on anticipation, adrenaline and energy drinks.

At 8 am, the doors to most of the stores opened on time. There was no electricity at the Ariapita Avenue store until 1 pm. The photocopier at another branch had the wrong type of plug, they opened at 10 am. The St Helena branch had no telephone line, so they waited for the Internet service provider to finish connecting the dish.

“Unfortunately we did have one or two teething problems,” says Joe, grinning. “It’s hectic.”

When things got too hectic on opening day, Red Cell was able to contact their Digicel account manager.

Joe credits Yvonne Burke, director of retail operations at Digicel, and her team of Jerome Khan and Rhanie Mohammed for their role in his new company’s early success, particularly in that first frenzied week.

“It’s just a breath of fresh air to have a business partner who is working with me. As an entrepreneur for the last 12 years in this business, it’s been sometimes frustrating.”

There were a lot of curiosity-seekers when the doors finally opened. Many of the news reports that evening suggested there were more people browsing than buying.

But Joe Pires flexes the figures: “Our stores have been fairly consistent. Our flagship stores have done very, very well. They have exceeded our monthly sales budget already in the first four days of business which I am very pleased about.”

Red Cell is banking on its service edge and its marketing to distinguish it from other Digicel distributors. The design is an amalgamation gained from visiting stores across the United States and the United Kingdom.

The look is consistent in every store, modern and geared towards merchandising. The company’s red and white colouring is juxtaposed in clean lines throughout, on displays, walls and on uniforms.

Joe believes that while mass marketing, curiosity and displeasure with the competition will bring customers in the door, it is their experience in the store that will keep them coming back.

Digicel’s slogan is “Expect More. Get More.” Red Cell advertises provocatively “You Get Even More in a Red Cell Store.”

“Digicel has to seek its interests and I have to seek my Red Cell interests. I wish Digicel success because if they succeed, I succeed.”

Pires believes that Digicel and its dealers have sold more phones since the service launched than its rival.

“We are very pleased with our targets from the first month, we surpassed our objectives. We believe that all the Digicel dealers surpassed their targets.”

And with the introduction of a Digicel small business corporate plan, group sales are on the rise as Red Cell begins to expand its focus beyond its individual walk-in customers.

Red Cell however doesn’t just compete against TSTT’s bmobile. There are about 200 Digicel-partnered distributor outlets located throughout T&T.

The inter-distributor “dog fight” is temporarily held in the balance by their common drive to get the Digicel brand established through high, early sales. In every location Red Cell competes with other Digicel-partnered stores. Pires is convinced that his calculations are right, and that the expected foot-traffic will walk into his Red Cell stores.

“Three to six months from now we expect some of our competitors to close once the hype is done and they have to focus on the routine month-to-month business” states Pires matter-of-factly.

“We believe at that time Red Cell will be in an acquisition mode. We will be looking for new locations.”

For a man who is used to getting things done his way, right away, Pires demonstrated unprecedented patience during the interconnection delay. Even while trying to provide Trinidad with a choice of mobile phone service, he had no choice but to wait for his Digicel phone to ring.

Now it doesn’t stop ringing, and if his projections are correct, Red Cell’s mobile phones may be ringing more than anyone else’s.