Altice to drop Numericable, Virgin brands

French broadband and mobile operator Numericable-SFR informed staff representatives that the Numericable brand would be dropped, reports Le Parisien, citing an internal document. When Altice bought SFR from Vivendi last year, Patrick Drahi already alluded to plans to drop the Numericable brand, which is not as strong as SFR. Management writes, “The group’s premium offers will be carried by a single brand for fixed and mobile, SFR, which is better adapted to the group’s strategy. The Numericable brand will first be dropped for new customers and eventually for the installed base, with the aim of migrating customers towards SFR.” 

In the next few months, 62 Numericable stores will disappear. Six of them will be rebranded as SFR and the others will be shut down. Some 235 employees will be transferred to SFR stores. At the time of the acquisition Altice chairman Patrick Drahi made a commitment to maintain jobs for three years. The project will be introduced to sales team on 9 November and negotiations will start the following day with the intention of reaching agreement by the the end of the month.

If the stores, products and services will be united under the SFR brand, the group's online-offers with no contract commitment will be sold under the single brand ‘Red’. The Virgin Mobile brand will be phased out as customers on fixed-term plans are migrated to SFR and those without contacts are migrated to Red. All of the group’s online-only business will be regrouped under the Omea Telecom subsidiary. Management aims for Red to have more customers than its main rival, Orange's Sosh, by 2017.