Dick Smith has today announced a long-term retail partnership with Vodafone to sell the telco’s smartphones and mobile plans in 276 Dick Smith locations across Australia. Dick Smith hopes the deal will rapidly grow mobility sales to account for 20 per cent of group revenue within three years.

From today, Vodafone’s retail presence will more than double as around 2,300 specialist Dick Smith/Vodafone sales consultants move into the electrical retailer’s stores. Currently there are 273 Vodafone retailers in Australia, made up of 114 company owned stores and 159 partners and dealers.

The partnership expands Dick Smith’s postpaid services and will offer customers with an extensive range of smartphone and mobile broadband devices on 12- and 24-month contracts and SIM-only plans, which complements Dick Smith’s unlocked phone business.

Nick Abboud, Dick Smith managing director and CEO said, “Dick Smith is already a major retailer in mobility, with over 25 per cent of the unlocked handset market in Australia. Combined with our-long term partnership with Vodafone, we believe we can grow our mobility sales by over 50 per cent to approximately 20 per cent of group revenue within three years,” Abboud said.

Abboud said Dick Smith’s philosophy of providing great service, convenience and exceptional value was matched by Vodafone’s offerings.

“Its lightning-fast 4G network, expanding network coverage and competitively priced plans complement our strategy of providing customers with unrivalled value and make Vodafone the logical partner to grow our mobility business over the long term,” he said.

Vodafone CEO Iñaki Berroeta said Vodafone currently has one million customers on its 4G network, which launched in capital cities in June 2013.  Each month 100 new 4G sites are added to the network, the company said.

“Our partnership with Dick Smith signifies our readiness to offer the best prices for data and smartphones to more customers around Australia.

“With the power of Australia’s largest consumer electronics retailer behind us, we’ll be in an even stronger position to bring the power of Vodafone 4G to the next million,” Mr Berroeta said.