Wireless Advantage, a Verizon Premium Retailer with 45 stores across the Southeast, has been acquired by Round Room, the nation’s largest authorized Verizon dealer.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Round Room, which operates the TCC and Wireless Zone mobile chains, will integrate Wireless Advantage into TCC, bringing its store count up to 921 locations across the country.
Wireless Zone operates 365 Verizon stores nationwide.
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Under the plan, Wireless Advantage’s field staff, store managers and sales associates will become TCC employees and the company’s Alabama-based back-office support staff will move to Round Room headquarters in Carmel, Ind.
“Wireless Advantage has a great reputation as a top industry retailer with years of strong performance in Verizon’s Southeast market,” said Round Room CEO Scott Moorehead. “Like TCC, the company has a keen focus on delivering superior customer service with a commitment to developing its employees, and we look forward to bringing our organizations together.”
Wireless Advantage was founded 17 years ago by Steve Maddox as an Alltel dealer and soon became the carrier’s largest chain in Alabama. It was later recognized as one of Verizon’s fastest-growing Premium Retailers in the Southeast following Alltel’s acquisition by Verizon Wireless in 2009.
TCC’s absorption of Wireless Advantage continues a growth-by-acquisition strategy that has more than doubled the chain’s size since 2015 and extended its presence in more than a dozen states, Round Room said. The latest acquisition is the ninth for TCC within the last eight years.
Wireless Zone, the largest independent Verizon Wireless franchise in the U.S., was similarly acquired by Round Room in 2016, but continues to operate under its original flag.
TCC and Wireless Zone together operate stores in 43 states.
In addition to the wireless chains, Round Room owns and operates Redux, which developed a drying box for dunked mobile phones, and Culture of Good, which helps organizations instill a culture of giving that can inspire employees, makes positive changes in the world and impact bottom lines. Last year, for example, TCC distributed 231,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to children and teachers, and 5,500 “care kits” to veterans and senior living communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX_fNm_G6u0
Round Room says the Culture of Good initiative contributed to a 20-percent reduction in turnover at TCC last year, saving the company $3.2 million in lost productivity and recruitment and training costs.
CEO Moorehead is a third-generation owner of TCC, which was founded from a single store in Marion, Ind., in 1991. Moorhead worked every position in the chain — more than 32 jobs — before assuming the top spot at the age of 30.
Since his promotion to CEO ten years ago, he has formed parent company Round Room and grown total revenues 1,400 percent to over $2 billion.
