Presenter: Mobile phones are now part of everyday life. People use them all the time and everywhere: on the street, in cars, on trains In the UK, over 40% of the population has a mobile phone. The

Company Profile

Presenter: Mobile phones are now part of everyday life. People use them all the time and everywhere: on the street, in cars, on trains… In the UK, over 40% of the population has a mobile phone. The biggest service provider in the UK is a company ['kʌmpənɪ] called Vodafone. Vodafone is the biggest mobile phone company in the world. It is the biggest company in Europe and one of the top ten companies in the world.

Mike Caldwell: In the UK, we have something like 30% of the market, which means that one in five of the entire [ɪn'taɪə] population of the UK actually have Vodafone. On a typical day, Vodafone will handle more than fifty million calls just in the UK alone.

Presenter: Vodafone is based in the south of England in Newbury, a small market town about 100 kilometers west of London. At present, the company has 62 separate ['sep(ə)rət] office buildings in different parts of the town.

Mike Caldwell: We are now building a new global headquarters, which is over half a million square feet of office space, just on the outskirts ['autskɜːts] of town. The new Head Office will have something like 3 500 people when it’s fully operational.

Presenter: Vodafone is a global organization. It operates in 25 countries across five continents. The company doesn’t make mobile phones or any other hardware. Vodafone buys telecommunications equipment from manufactures and users to provide a mobile phone service.

Mike Caldwell: The magic thing or the clever thing about Vodafone is the way its technology people actually put together other people’s equipment to deliver the service in the way we want it. Vodafone has over 12 000 employees in the UK out of a world-wide total of approaching 60 000. Vodafone has a mixture of employees, ranging from engineers and IT specialists through to people who market the products and services that we offer to our customers.

Presenter: The company has approximately 300 retail stores in the UK. These employ in the region of 5 000 staff.

Ellie Thornbury: I’m a sales adviser here. I sell the latest Vodafone mobile phones, accessories, and sell network to try and promote our services. We’re open nine to five-thirty, six days a week, and on Sundays, eleven till five. At the moment, we have four staff who work in the store. It’s hard to say how many customers come in here every day. On average, I would say, probably about… I don’t know, between thirty and sixty. It really depends on the type of day it is. Saturdays are obviously busier. We sell on average anything between twenty and fifty phones a day. We get every type of person. We get children coming in wanting the latest fashion phone, students who want to keep in contact with their families.

Presenter: The name Vodafone isn’t only a common feature ['fiːʧə] on British high streets. The company us a regular sponsor of British sport and sporting events, including the England cricket team, touring car racing and the Derby classic horse race.

Mike Caldwell: Vodafone has over 10 million customers in the UK and world-wide, has over 60 million, a number which is growing very, very rapidly. The customer of Vodafone is extremely varied ['veərɪd]. It ranges from quite young people right up to pensioners. The mobile phone is a product that is used by a whole range of people for a whole range of different uses, from emergency [ɪ'mɜːʤ(ə)n(t)sɪ] use through to the business man who uses their phone every day to conduct their business affairs.

You are a journalist. You are interviewing the CEO of Vodafone. Ask him/her the following questions:

1)To your mind, why do you think phone business in general is so popular?

2)How big is your company?

3)How many phone calls does your company handle on a typical day?

4)Where are you currently based in?

5)Are you a local company, or do you have branches in other companies?

6)Do you design and produce all the hardware yourself, do you outsource the production?

7)How many retail stores do you have in England?

8)Do you sponsor and public events?

9)Who are your typical customers?

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04