Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom-Orange say their procurement joint venture called BUYIN will commence operations on Monday. Volker Pyrtek, previously Chief Procurement Officer at Deutsche Telekom, will be the new managing director.
Around 1.3 billion Euro is expected to be saved every year by the joint venture after it’s been running for three years.
BUYIN will be based in Brussels with operational units in France and Germany. It’ll handle procurement activities for both companies in the areas of terminal devices, mobile communications networks and significant portions of fixed-network equipment and service platforms.
Edward R Kozel, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Deutsche Telekom, said “We are very pleased to have received approval from appropriate anti-trust authorities for our procurement cooperation with France Télécom-Orange. Now we can start working together to tap into the large and growing potential savings from joint procurement. Volker Pyrtek is a truly entrepreneurial procurement leader who has demonstrated his expertise in the past eight years being responsible for procurement at T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom. I am confident that we will quickly be able to realize the available synergies under his direction, with procurement making a significant contribution to the realization of our Telco+ strategy.”
The two companies had announced their intention to form a procurement joint venture in April 2011.