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The Algerian consumer electronics brand Condor does not hide its ambitions in France, a country that should serve as a "sounding board" to shine in both Southern Europe and Africa. His young and new boss for France, also responsible for development, explains the Digital Group strategy.
Condor ... Still absent from the French market, this brand of smartphones and mobile phones probably does not tell you much for the moment, but it should change very quickly as the ambitions of the Algerian company are immense. Condor is the subsidiary of the family group Benhamadi Antar Trade which, created in 1954, started in the food industry before diversifying and becoming a juggernaut of home appliances and electronics in the Mediterranean, with nearly 15,000 employees all branches combined and a turnover of more than a billion dollars (the conglomerate now includes activities in the food, construction, real estate, furniture, automotive, logistics, hospitality, renewable energy, in addition to home appliances and telephony). Condor even claims first place ahead of Samsung in its domestic mobile phone market. And the brand now intends to tackle the French market, with smartphones less than 300 € presenting a quality / price ratio that it hopes ultra attractive. While waiting to make our lab tests speak on his smartphones, we met Farès al-Mousli, the leader for France and responsible for the international development of Condor.
You are entering the French market with a new flagship, the Allure M3. How do you intend to make a difference?
Farès al-Mousli:
We are very proud of the M3. Our new smartphone has been very well received by distributors and everyone who has tested it. They like its design, its screen, its specifications, its elegance. People are "shocked" by its price of € 299, but in a good way, and wonder why buy more. We want to give the best of technology at the right price. Condor is a brand with a long-term vision on the French market. We are here to stay. France is the beginning of the European adventure. We will go slowly, but surely. With the right price. We will not participate in price inflation.
You arrive on a rather complicated market, with very strong competition. You will find before you Wiko and other aggressive Chinese brands. How do you hope to attract consumers to you?
We are in a commodities market. We would like the best smartphone to be in the hands of everyone. The idea is to tell people, "By buying condor, you will save money." But we are not trying to make low cost phones. We are currently present in the Maghreb - in Tunisia and Morocco in particular - and in West Africa. We have also started to establish ourselves in the Middle East. But our strategic priority is France, a market of 23 million aircraft. There is a way to manage the distributors who are partners, a way to treat the customer in the end. He will be free to buy or not a Condor. We are convinced to be very competitive. You know, we started in telephony in 2013. People told us then that we were great dreamers, especially with a Korean brand that crushed the Algerian market [Samsung, Ed]. And finally, in late 2017, we became the leaders in our market.
How many units sold does this represent?
In 2017, we sold 3.5 million smartphones and 1.5 million feature phones in total. In 2018, we are targeting 6 million units.
Will you be present at French operators?
Today, Condor already sells prepaid packs at SFR on features phones. We want to continue to develop this market. It's a beginning. But our goal is to be present in the shops SFR, Bouygues ... and with smartphones. It is on these devices that we want to make a difference. We will position ourselves online, with some partners in e-commerce, then we would like to integrate the large distribution to reach a maximum of world.
How does your range of smartphones look?
The cheapest smartphone costs 60 €. The most expensive is 300 €. We have four to five models per range and per year [three ranges: Claw, Plume, Allure, Ed]. The goal is not to launch all models at the same time. Allure M3 can do damage. It is aimed at lovers of technology, design and elegance. With its level of technical specifications, we want to shake the market [6.2-inch Full HD 19: 9 screen, 64 GB of storage, 4 GB of RAM, dual SIM, battery 3,050 mAh, Editor's note]. We have integrated the latest MediaTek SoC, the Helio P60 with artificial intelligence. The Face Unlock is 3D for more security and you can unlock the camera at night with the infrared sensor. It benefits from a double Sony camera on the back [16 and 5 Mpx, Ed] and premium materials. In TVs for example, our customers were able to afford a 43-inch for the price of a 32-inch of well-known brands. For the same price, they had something more. That's our philosophy.
Concretely, what is behind the Allure M3: your teams or Chinese partners?
There are several stakeholders. We do not claim to be able to develop our smartphones 100%. We do research, we study design, trends. A phone like this is getting ready 6 to 9 months in advance. Several months ago, our teams in China and Algeria worked closely with our Chinese and Korean suppliers to choose the concepts, designs, screens, and take the gamble to launch a notch. Nine months ago, no one knew that was going to be the big trend. We made this bet at that time. Our teams work on what we want to put in our devices and from there, our suppliers help us build our models. We have had partners since the beginning of the adventure that have seen us grow and support us. And then there is no secret: there are leading manufacturers on certain components. We address them and we assemble at home.
How many are you at Condor now?
At the start of the Condor brand in 2002, there were 10 people. Today, 6,500 people work solely in electronics. The group started with televisions with cathode ray tube. The first mobile phone factory was opened in 2013.
And in France ?
We have a dedicated team that we intend to strengthen. We bought a distributor that had about ten people [Evodial, the former distributor of Condor who was in liquidation, Ed]. We have already recruited four people to set up the operating mode, the business. And we will create a design lab in Paris. We will reach 50 direct jobs in France.
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Do you assemble all your products in Algeria?
Yes. It allows us to be very competitive. The production costs are quite low. The cost of labor is 2.6 € per hour. It's 60% cheaper than Romania, and cheaper than China. And Condor is 2 hours by plane from Paris. We have the ability to manufacture 15 million phones in our factories. We are adding lines to open other markets.
Do you hope to become a kind of new Wiko?
Wiko is very respectable, but we prefer to have our own story. Our strategy is different. Our DNA, our business model, our philosophy are different. Our target markets are also different. We are at the gateway to Africa, a market of one billion consumers. It can go very fast. We seek to take pleasure.
... and still sell some smartphones, incidentally in France.
Sales of Condor phones will start in a couple of weeks in France. We start with the Griffe and Plume ranges from 60 to 189 €. The M3 and M3 Lite will be available for sale from June. The M1 Allure will also be launched. But the M3 is our spearhead. We want to exceed 500,000 sales in France this year, this is our goal. And in 2019, we target 2 million units all confused (prepaid packs and smartphones).
So you're not here to do figuration ...
No. We are a serious player in the market. We have demonstrated our ability to compete. Our sales exceed $ 1 billion, 80% of which is provided by consumer electronics. And mobile telephony represents 30 to 35% of the turnover of electronics. The smartphone is not for us a test product. It's long term.
What will be your targets after the French market?
Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium are also of interest to us. But that will be from France. We must succeed. It's our sounding board for neighboring countries, but also for North and West Africa.
Condor ... Still absent from the French market, this brand of smartphones and mobile phones probably does not tell you much for the moment, but it should change very quickly as the ambitions of the Algerian company are immense. Condor is the subsidiary of the family group Benhamadi Antar Trade which, created in 1954, started in the food industry before diversifying and becoming a juggernaut of home appliances and electronics in the Mediterranean, with nearly 15,000 employees all branches combined and a turnover of more than a billion dollars (the conglomerate now includes activities in the food, construction, real estate, furniture, automotive, logistics, hospitality, renewable energy, in addition to home appliances and telephony). Condor even claims first place ahead of Samsung in its domestic mobile phone market. And the brand now intends to tackle the French market, with smartphones less than 300 € presenting a quality / price ratio that it hopes ultra attractive. While waiting to make our lab tests speak on his smartphones, we met Farès al-Mousli, the leader for France and responsible for the international development of Condor.
You are entering the French market with a new flagship, the Allure M3. How do you intend to make a difference?
Farès al-Mousli:
We are very proud of the M3. Our new smartphone has been very well received by distributors and everyone who has tested it. They like its design, its screen, its specifications, its elegance. People are "shocked" by its price of € 299, but in a good way, and wonder why buy more. We want to give the best of technology at the right price. Condor is a brand with a long-term vision on the French market. We are here to stay. France is the beginning of the European adventure. We will go slowly, but surely. With the right price. We will not participate in price inflation.
You arrive on a rather complicated market, with very strong competition. You will find before you Wiko and other aggressive Chinese brands. How do you hope to attract consumers to you?
We are in a commodities market. We would like the best smartphone to be in the hands of everyone. The idea is to tell people, "By buying condor, you will save money." But we are not trying to make low cost phones. We are currently present in the Maghreb - in Tunisia and Morocco in particular - and in West Africa. We have also started to establish ourselves in the Middle East. But our strategic priority is France, a market of 23 million aircraft. There is a way to manage the distributors who are partners, a way to treat the customer in the end. He will be free to buy or not a Condor. We are convinced to be very competitive. You know, we started in telephony in 2013. People told us then that we were great dreamers, especially with a Korean brand that crushed the Algerian market [Samsung, Ed]. And finally, in late 2017, we became the leaders in our market.
How many units sold does this represent?
In 2017, we sold 3.5 million smartphones and 1.5 million feature phones in total. In 2018, we are targeting 6 million units.
Will you be present at French operators?
Today, Condor already sells prepaid packs at SFR on features phones. We want to continue to develop this market. It's a beginning. But our goal is to be present in the shops SFR, Bouygues ... and with smartphones. It is on these devices that we want to make a difference. We will position ourselves online, with some partners in e-commerce, then we would like to integrate the large distribution to reach a maximum of world.
How does your range of smartphones look?
The cheapest smartphone costs 60 €. The most expensive is 300 €. We have four to five models per range and per year [three ranges: Claw, Plume, Allure, Ed]. The goal is not to launch all models at the same time. Allure M3 can do damage. It is aimed at lovers of technology, design and elegance. With its level of technical specifications, we want to shake the market [6.2-inch Full HD 19: 9 screen, 64 GB of storage, 4 GB of RAM, dual SIM, battery 3,050 mAh, Editor's note]. We have integrated the latest MediaTek SoC, the Helio P60 with artificial intelligence. The Face Unlock is 3D for more security and you can unlock the camera at night with the infrared sensor. It benefits from a double Sony camera on the back [16 and 5 Mpx, Ed] and premium materials. In TVs for example, our customers were able to afford a 43-inch for the price of a 32-inch of well-known brands. For the same price, they had something more. That's our philosophy.
Concretely, what is behind the Allure M3: your teams or Chinese partners?
There are several stakeholders. We do not claim to be able to develop our smartphones 100%. We do research, we study design, trends. A phone like this is getting ready 6 to 9 months in advance. Several months ago, our teams in China and Algeria worked closely with our Chinese and Korean suppliers to choose the concepts, designs, screens, and take the gamble to launch a notch. Nine months ago, no one knew that was going to be the big trend. We made this bet at that time. Our teams work on what we want to put in our devices and from there, our suppliers help us build our models. We have had partners since the beginning of the adventure that have seen us grow and support us. And then there is no secret: there are leading manufacturers on certain components. We address them and we assemble at home.
How many are you at Condor now?
At the start of the Condor brand in 2002, there were 10 people. Today, 6,500 people work solely in electronics. The group started with televisions with cathode ray tube. The first mobile phone factory was opened in 2013.
And in France ?
We have a dedicated team that we intend to strengthen. We bought a distributor that had about ten people [Evodial, the former distributor of Condor who was in liquidation, Ed]. We have already recruited four people to set up the operating mode, the business. And we will create a design lab in Paris. We will reach 50 direct jobs in France.
*
Do you assemble all your products in Algeria?
Yes. It allows us to be very competitive. The production costs are quite low. The cost of labor is 2.6 € per hour. It's 60% cheaper than Romania, and cheaper than China. And Condor is 2 hours by plane from Paris. We have the ability to manufacture 15 million phones in our factories. We are adding lines to open other markets.
Do you hope to become a kind of new Wiko?
Wiko is very respectable, but we prefer to have our own story. Our strategy is different. Our DNA, our business model, our philosophy are different. Our target markets are also different. We are at the gateway to Africa, a market of one billion consumers. It can go very fast. We seek to take pleasure.
... and still sell some smartphones, incidentally in France.
Sales of Condor phones will start in a couple of weeks in France. We start with the Griffe and Plume ranges from 60 to 189 €. The M3 and M3 Lite will be available for sale from June. The M1 Allure will also be launched. But the M3 is our spearhead. We want to exceed 500,000 sales in France this year, this is our goal. And in 2019, we target 2 million units all confused (prepaid packs and smartphones).
So you're not here to do figuration ...
No. We are a serious player in the market. We have demonstrated our ability to compete. Our sales exceed $ 1 billion, 80% of which is provided by consumer electronics. And mobile telephony represents 30 to 35% of the turnover of electronics. The smartphone is not for us a test product. It's long term.
What will be your targets after the French market?
Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium are also of interest to us. But that will be from France. We must succeed. It's our sounding board for neighboring countries, but also for North and West Africa.