Hutch on wheels to customers

Hutchison Essar, a popular telecom service provider in the country, has announced the launch of a new retail initiative "" the shop on wheels. The concept, Mobile Hutch Shops, comprises a shop built into the interiors of a van, enabling it to move to customer locations to address their needs instead of the other way around.

"We have launched the Hutch Shop on Wheels in Karnataka at the moment. The model is structured on the lines of a trial done as part of the Hutchison Group earlier," said Samuel Selvakumar, CEO, Hutchison Essar South Ltd.

The mobile shops will meet the needs of the interior regions of Karnataka as well as that of cities like Bangalore.

"Just imagine a van like this in Electronics City. We would probably see 20,000 prospective customers walking into it in one day along with existing customers. We hope the vans to reach as many people as possible," said Selvakumar.

The vans are connected via. Hutch's existing GPRS network and customers can use it for any of the activities performed in Hutch's brick-and-mortar shops, including getting new connections (post-paid or pre-paid), change of tariff plans and SIM card replacements.

Details of investment, number of vans to be used and the actual number of new customers targeted were unavailable.

Hutchison Essar has licences for 13 circles in India and a combined subscriber base of over 6 million. Hutch Karnataka alone has over 4 lakh subscribers, 10 shops and 40 teleshops.