Industry Retail Website www.cellularsales.com Founded 1993 Type of business Private | Founder Dane Scism Headquarters Knoxville Number of employees 4,500 | |
Key people Dane Scism: CEO,Margaret Scism: President, Profiles | ||
Cellular sales verizon wireless premium retailer an entrepreneurial opportunity
Cellular Sales is a wireless retailing company. It is recognized as the largest Verizon wireless retailer in the United States. Cellular Sales operates more than 560 retail stores across 28 states in the U.S. In 2012, the company was ranked on Inc. Magazine's Inc 5000 list as the 60th fastest growing U.S retailer. Dane Scism is the company CEO, and its headquarters is located in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Company history
In the early 1990s, Cellular Sales opened a retail kiosk in a mall in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dane and Margaret Scism purchased Cellular Sales in 1993. The main cellphone store was based in Knoxville and later moved to Kingston Pike. In 1996, the company bought out one of its contract partners, Mike Collins, and added its 4th and 5th locations. Cellular Sales continued to grow through the late 1990s and early 2000s by making its original independent sales representatives partners in new territory markets it opened.
The company set itself apart from other cellular agents in the market by impressing a strict professional dress code. Cellular Sales marketed service on behalf of Cellular One and GTE Wireless prior to the advent of Verizon Wireless in April 2000. In 2009, the company opened 68 new stores across the country. Following its rapid growth, Cellular Sales was named to Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies, and was featured consistently from 2008 to 2011. The company opened its 300th store in Blount County, Tennessee in April 2010.
Cellular Sales made $488.5 million in revenue in 2010. The following year, the store opened its 400th store in Hope Mills, North Carolina. In 2012, following a 242% growth over a 36-month period, marked by a revenue increase of $207.3 million to $708.6 million. In 2013, the company’s revenue was over $1 billion.
In December 2015, the Cellular Sales consolidated four of its five Knoxville-area locations into one corporate headquarters. The building houses 350 of the company’s 4,500 employees and includes a call center with 140 employees.
Philanthropy
In 2010, Cellular Sales joined Cell Phones For Soldiers to distribute free calling cards to U.S. Soldiers overseas. Cellular Sales donated $15,000 to SOAR Youth Ministries, a nonprofit serving at-risk youth, in 2012. The company has also sponsored the annual SOAR Golf Tournament. Also in 2012, Cellular Sales offered free cell and internet service for Kentucky and Indiana storm victims. The company donated $45,000 in September of the same year to Great School Partnership to help fund programs in Knox County Schools. The donation went toward the Verizon Cellular Sales Center for Academic Excellence at West High School, a tutoring center to help students complete credits to graduate and prepare for the ACT.