by Dirk Perrefort
What began with the purchase by two local high school graduates of a lone kiosk selling cellphone accessories has become a new brand with locations throughout the area.
It was about five years ago when Matt Abrantes and Eric Walsh purchased their first kiosk at the Danbury Fair mall, selling accessories for mostly Blackberry and LG flip phones. Within a year, the young entrepreneurs were well on their way to building out their own business empire ”” operating kiosks from Maine to Connecticut while developing their own brand ”” Rescue Mobile, which officially launched in 2011.
“I was going to Western Connecticut State University while working a part time job at this kiosk and realized how much money they were making,” Walsh said. “We made the owner of the kiosk an offer and it just continued to grow from there.”
- Matt Abrantes, left, and Eric Walsh, both 27-year-old Danbury residents, are co-founders of Mobile Rescue. Photos by Carol Kaliff/Hearst Connecticut Media
While malls offer ample foot traffic, lease rates can vary from $40,000 to more than $120,000 annually depending on the location.
“We still had a good competitive advantage because our prices are a lot less than mobile carriers located in the mall and we often have a much larger selection,” Walsh said. “These days, phone accessories have become more fashionable. Women will often buy different covers just to match their outfits.”
And while there are lots of stores out there offering cellular and tablet repairs, Walsh and Abrantes say they have taken the service to a new level through Mobile Rescue, which has three locations, including one in Danbury and Ridgefield.
“We want to provide people with the best possible quality and we offer a lifetime guarantee on all our repairs,” Walsh said. “We realized that we couldn”™t spend time growing the business if we were constantly re-repairing phones that had already been in the shop.”
Besides smartphones, the store also will repair tablets, desktop computers, flat screen televisions and other electronic equipment. They will also send a repair person right to a customer”™s doorstep.
“There are a lot of people who may be stuck at work but need to get their phone fixed,” Walsh said. “If it”™s within 20 minutes of our location, we”™ll go directly to the workplace to make the repair. The customer never has to leave their office.”
The entrepreneurs also recently invested more than $50,000 in equipment so they can create their own glass screens, using factory original glass, right on the store premises.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News-Times (Danbury). See ctpost.com for more from this reporter.
