BARCELONA, Spain — The growth in smartphone penetration and adoption of 3G services benefited logistics company Celistics. The company, which is focused on Latin America, said it managed 192 million device units last year, which was a 50% increase compared to 2013, and helped boost revenue 25% year-over-year. The company does not disclose numbers, but said that revenue in local currencies was even higher, although actual numbers were impacted by currency exchange rates.
According to José Antonio Ríos, CEO of Celistics, smartphones make up more than 50% of total devices managed by the company. In addition, Celistics said it has entered into new business areas, managing machine-to-machine terminals and has launched a new distribution platform designed to manage device demand and anticipate sales.
“Carriers know their churn rate, but they don’t know how many sales they lose when customers go to their store and don’t find the device they are looking for,” said Ríos in a press meeting during this week’s Mobile World Congress.
Ríos also told RCR Wireless News his thoughts on device trends and provided more details about the company’s operations and forecasts.
With a presence in 16 countries and counting 2,150 employees, Celistics delivers cellphones and SIM cards to 90,000 points of sale. Both Telefónica and America Movil are clients, among other telecom operators, as well as cellphone and SIM card manufacturers.
To manage logistics, Celistics said it has invested about 30% of its revenue in IT systems. The company built several in-house platforms designed to track all packages and monitor delivery schedules. The challenge is large as about 85% of devices come from Asia to Latin American countries via the U.S. Brazil is a particular case as many cellphone makers have local manufacturing facilities.
Another challenge is in dealing with the large number of device vendors. Celistics noted that in Brazil alone it manages devices from 23 different manufactures. Celistics is also challenged by having to comply with regulations from the various countries.
Editor’s Note: Celistics paid for travel costs to Barcelona.
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