Indiantelevision.com Team

(18 August 2007 5:30 pm)

BANGALORE:Tamil Nadu-based mobile retail chain Indus Mobile Distribution (IMDPL) has announced the launch of seven stores in Bangalore today.

The brand name for the store chain is Univercell. One of the flagship stores - at CMH Indiranagar - was inaugurated by South Indian female actor Ramya. The other was in Sadashivanagar by Kannada film actor Darshan.

IMDPL founder and managing director Satish Babu is looking to grow the number of Univercell stores to 40 by the end of this year in Karnataka and overall in South India to 150.

This tally includes growing the number of stores in TN to 60 from the current 42, starting 40 new stores in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and 10 in Kerala. Of these, by the end of September, Satish expects to bring the number to 100 stores. The first AP store will be launched shortly in the pilgrimage town of Tirupathi, with Hyderabad soon to follow along with aggressive plans to move pan India soon. IMPDL intends to go the franchisee route next year and expects to have around 100 franchisee outlets in TN.

Satish is confident that the economics of scale – of volume buying and selling at lower prices - will drive sales and help capture 20 per cent of the market in Bangalore which IMDPL estimates is about 150,000 new handsets per month.

The IMDPL estimate for the Chennai market is around 120,000 handsets per month. The markets in TN and Karnataka are around 450,000 handsets each per month.

Satish contends that 98 per cent of the mobile retail market in India is unorganized and he is confident of attaining a turnover of Rs 7 billion by the end of this fiscal (31 March, 2008), up from last fiscal’s turnover of Rs 1.2 billion. On an average Satish expects each outlet to have a sales turnover of around Rs 10 million per month. He claims that last month his outlets sold about 60,000 handsets and accessories worth Rs 30 million in TN on the back of the new stores that have been launched there.

To attract customers, Satish has had most of his store inaugurations done by film stars and film personalities. The brand ambassador for Univercell is film actor Madhavan, who according to IMDPL head marketing Geetha Durai is a tech savvy, educated and sophisticated young man who will find appeal with the youth. For North and other parts of the country, the company is open to other brand ambassadors. Geetha is targeting the youth between 16 and 35.

An aggressive media campaign has been planned, according to Satish. The company has been advertising on television in TN and spots have been booked on the Sun Kannada bouquet, ETV and TV9. The TVCs’ will start today in Karnataka. The creative work has been done by a local Chennai based agency – Rubicon and media buying is through Starcom. Market estimates peg the monthly campaign expenses to about Rs 10 million plus.

Some of the other initiatives to grab the buyers’ interest are theft insurance through United India Assurance Co., interest free EMI’s for purchase by installments through ICICI, HDFC and Citibank credit cards, purchase through internet and a short code SMS number.

The short code SMS number has been popular, says Satish. He claims that on an average 5000 SMS daily are received by his company in Chennai alone. Using the short code, a person could send an SMS with the name of the mobile manufacturer and the model number for information about the features and the price of that model.

Satish is looking out for funding to the extent of Rs 500 million to meet the working capital requirements, in this mainly for stock purchases to meet the demands of the expanded operations. Every Univercell store is networked to mange the supply chain requirements, and also to keep up with in a price sensitive market like mobile phones, according to Satish.