Honor opts for offline route to strengthen presence in India

Honor, the e-only smartphones brand under Chinese telecom equipment company Huawei, on Thursday announced it was taking the offline route to strengthen its presence in India.

As part of the new strategy, Honor has partnered with Sangeetha, arguably one of the largest mobile phone retailing chains in south India.

"The deal reiterates the importance of India as its priority market for Honor and is expected to catalyse Honor's goal of clocking 10x sales in 2015," the company said.

Honor's Holly smartphones will be available offline at a price of Rs.7,999 while the company keeps selling its other products online via Flipkart.

The announcement asssumes significance as Honor seems to have broken the trend of Chinese brands that are only selling their smartphones online.

Commenting on the new strategy, Allen Wang, president of consumer business group, Huawei India said: "To reinforce our commitment towards our customers in India we have decided to introduce Honor Holly in brick-and-mortar retailer shops where customers can get a hands-on experience of our smartphone.

"We are glad to exclusively partner with Sangeetha mobiles as they have a strong presence in the southern market in India."

Sangeetha has a network of 320 stores present across four states -- Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerela -- with 60 percent of the stores present in Bangalore.

"Holly will be available at an inaugural offer of 20 percent cashback, also allowing customers to get a brand new reliance dongle along with the phone at an additional Re.1," the company said.

Commenting on the tie-up, Subhash Chandra, managing director of Sangeetha Mobiles, said: "With this association, our customers will be able to enjoy privileges of our 41st anniversary sale which presents exciting offers on Honor products and the Happiness Pack that covers aspects like liquid and physical damage, theft, extended warranty and pick-up and drop service for the Honor devices."

In 2014, Honor smartphones clocked 20 million units which were approximately 1.5 units sold every second of sales.