Royal tone at Carphone Warehouse

WE MAY never know if Her Majesty uses the national anthem for a ringtone, prefers Nokia to Ericsson or text-messages her royal offspring, but we now know where she prefers to buy her mobile phones.

A highly-prized Royal Warrant has been granted to The Carphone Warehouse from 1 January until 2006, recognising the company as 'the sole and direct supplier of mobile communications to the Royal Household for the last five years'.

The Carphone Warehouse becomes the first listed mobiles company to secure a warrant from the Queen and is already redesigning its stationery and literature to feature the Royal crest and the legend 'By Appointment to her Majesty the Queen'.

Carphone's youthful chief executive and chairman Charles Dunstone, who has built the firm from scratch into Europe's largest mobile retailer in only 12 years, described the award as a great honour.

Royal warrants have been regarded as a mark of excellence and quality since the first Royal Charter was awarded by Henry II to the Weavers Company in 1155, and are normally associated with traditional firms such as top people's grocer Fortnum & Mason and tea company Twinings. Only 800 companies hold a tally of about 1,100 warrants awarded by the four most senior Royals.