Knott-Craig looks to double Cell C market share within four years

The incoming CEO at South African mobile network operator, Cell C says that he wants to double the company’s market share to 25 per cent within the next three to four years.

Former Vodacom CEO, Alan Knott-Craig takes over from the beginning of April and has a mandate from the owners to build market share "as quickly as I can". Cell C has been without a permanent CEO since former chief executive Lars Reichelt left the company in July 2011.

The cellco has languished in terms of market share ever since it launched into the market dominated by Vodacom and MTN, and still only has around 13 per cent of the country’s mobile subscribers.

The firm was probably held back by its former CEO’s initially dismissive attitude to mobile broadband services, which the other networks launched, and upgraded, as swiftly as possible.

Knott-Craig was CEO of the country’s biggest cellular operator, Vodacom, for 12 years up to 2008, and managing director of the company from 1993 to 1996.

Knott-Craig regards the 25 per cent market share target as ambitious but not impossible and "not negotiable".