Islamabad, Special Report: Due to the incompetence of the iTel mobile phone company’s management and sluggishness in the market, consumer confidence has started to erode. Consumers have stopped buying iTel mobile phones. Investors’ lack of confidence in iTel company has rung alarm bells, with the company facing billions of rupees in losses, which has compounded its difficulties.
Chinese mobile phone manufacturing company iTel is reportedly facing a major business crisis in Pakistan. According to internal sources within the company, agreements made in early 2024 with three Pakistani manufacturing companies to produce mobile phones worth over 10 billion rupees backfired due to the company’s internal policies and tough market competition.
Reports indicate that the sales of mobile phones manufactured by iTel have stalled, causing its Pakistani manufacturing partners to be burdened with unsold stock worth over 10 billion rupees. This situation has reportedly resulted in losses of millions of rupees for these local companies.
Internal sources at iTel attribute the unsuccessful management changes made after 2024 as a significant factor. It is claimed that officials in the new management made unilateral decisions that led to significant financial losses for the company. Furthermore, allegations of inexperience and corruption have been leveled against the current administrative officers, who are also accused of favoring one local partner at the expense of three other distributors, causing them billions of rupees in losses and severely impacting iTel’s overall business in Pakistan. Pakistani mobile consumers have also reportedly refused to buy iTel mobile phones.
The Pakistani mobile phone market has also been facing an overall crisis for the past six months. This slowdown is due to the excessive import of stock by local and Chinese mobile phone companies, which has led to a supply in the market far exceeding demand, and there has also been a decrease in consumer demand for mobile phones in Pakistan. This imbalance between supply and demand has significantly affected the sales of many Chinese mobile phone companies in the country. iTel, which had already manufactured a large number of devices, is now struggling to sell this stock, resulting in losses for its local manufacturing partners.
One of the affected manufacturing partners confirmed that a large stock manufactured months ago is still lying in their warehouses. Repeated attempts to contact Asim Jamil, iTel’s Sales Head in Pakistan, for a satisfactory response have been unsuccessful. Sources say that iTel’s representatives in Pakistan, Mr. Vicky and other administrative officers, are aware of the situation but may not be prioritizing it because the company did not directly invest in manufacturing.
Moreover, it has been reported that iTel has allegedly breached agreements with its channel partners for the second time, causing severe financial difficulties for those manufacturing its mobile phones. Another manufacturing partner claimed that they have iTel devices worth over 3.5 billion rupees in their warehouses, and they fear massive losses if this stock is not sold soon. They indicated that they are considering direct market sales to mitigate the situation and are trying to finalize negotiations with iTel. However, they also expressed the sentiment that a person named Jamil within iTel is allegedly favoring one partner at the expense of the other three.
Representatives of mobile phone selling companies, distributors, and dealers have also confirmed a sharp decline in the demand for iTel mobile phones in recent months and noted the company’s lack of significant efforts to boost sales. Several dealers accused the current iTel management of being involved in activities other than selling mobile phones. A major dealer stated that the company’s current head is primarily focused on collecting a large salary and has no interest in increasing sales.
A major channel partner and distributor of iTel mobile phones revealed that the three major local mobile phone manufacturing companies have directly contacted Pakistani dealers and distributors to buy the stock at extremely low prices. Negotiations are reportedly ongoing between these parties.
When contacted by Flare Magazine, a senior official of iTel Pakistan, Asim Jamil, stated that they have a commercial agreement with their channel partners and are not obligated to disclose their actions. He confirmed that iTel has agreements with various companies regarding mobile phone manufacturing in Pakistan and termed it an internal matter.
Meanwhile, heads of other mobile phone manufacturing companies have confirmed that iTel’s stock worth billions of rupees is present in the market, while mobile phones worth over another 10 billion rupees are lying in the manufacturers’ warehouses. They warned that if iTel does not take action to move this stock, it may have to be sold at a very low price in the market.
