Sainsbury’s has ditched its mobile phone service, a joint venture with Vodafone, within just two years of launch after signing up just 150,000 customers.
Mobile by Sainsbury’s will close on January 15, 2016, and the supermarket has already started to remove marketing materials from its stores.
Sainsbury’s says that pay-as-you-go users will be able to top up in-store and online until November 14, and will be able to continue to use existing credit until the shutdown date.
Pay monthly SIM-only customers will continue to receive a service as normal until January. It will continue to sell mobile phones and accessories in its in-store phone shops.
The service was Sainsbury’s second attempt at an mobile virtual network and was headed by a team drawn from both companies, in an attempt to challenge Tesco Mobile, which runs its services on the O2 network.
It offered a range of cut-price contracts, as well as Nectar reward points. However, according to some reports the company was unable make any inroads on competitors, attracting just 150,000 customers during its lifetime.
A Vodafone spokeswoman said: “We regret that Mobile by Sainsbury’s – a joint venture between Sainsbury’s and Vodafone UK, offering a mobile phone service to Sainsbury’s customers – is ending and the service will no longer be available from 15 January 2016.
“Mobile by Sainsbury’s priority now is to help its customers and make sure they are inconvenienced as little as possible.”
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