Lava to invest Rs 100 crore in mobile handsets market

With a proposed investment of more than Rs 100 crore over next five years, Lava International Ltd has entered a mid-priced segment cellphone handset manufacturing segment.

Lava, to begin with, has launched four different cellphone handsets and plans to a major foray in the western India region. While two of these models come with dual SIM technology, the others support a very high performance camera. The cellphones are priced at Rs 2,599 onwards, which, according to the promoters, is the key for acquiring a good market share.

Lava is planning to have a national presence with a special emphasis on India’s tier-II, tier-III and even smaller towns . "We plan to to upgrade the present low-end basic mobile handset users to a feature-loaded alternative. The phones are powered with a dual SIM feature, long lasting battery, dual LED powerful torch, camera, games, bluetooth and support up to 8 GB memory. The phones also provide FM radio, recording, one touch music player, dual stereo speakers, dual charging point, GPRS and speakerphones, which at the given price is very attractive," said SN Rai, co-founder and director, Lava International.

Indian mobile phone handset market is estimated at around 8 million per month and is growing rapidly, which makes it a big opportunity for a new serious player like Lava. Our research has shown that smaller cities are growing rapidly and we have decided to tap the growing demand in these markets along with the major metros," Rai stated.

Elaborating on the company marketing strategy, Lava sales head Praveen Srivastava said, "Pune, in particular, has always been one of the most lucrative markets for mobile phones. Lava is looking at capturing a major market share in Nagpur, Solapur, Thane, Nashik and Aurangabad mobile handset market . To cater to this part of the country Lava is in the process of setting up a strong distribution network for the easy availability of lava mobile phones."