Meridian Mobile to explore retail biz

Hoping for a relaxation in FDI norms in retail, Meridian Mobile is exploring possibilities of retail stores for its Fly brand of mobile phones in the near future.

Moreover, the manufacturer of GSM mobile phones, which is part of UK-based Meridien Group, is hopeful to open multi-product stores for mobile phones.

"Provided the FDI norms in retail is relaxed, there could be a possibility of setting up Fly mobile stores across India. But, at present, we don't have any such plans in mind," said Rajiv Khanna, CEO-Indian Operations, Meridian Mobile.

The company is marketing its Fly brand of mobile phones through large format retail stores as well as through direct customer selling.

"We have forged alliances with retail formats like Subhiksha, Pantaloons, RPG, among others. We are increasing the alliances with such large and small format shops from current 2,000 to 8,000 shops by end of November this year," added Khanna.

In an attempt into grab a bigger pie of competition, Meridian Mobile, which is primarily into higher priced mobile phones, will be launching lower-priced Fly phones in couple of weeks.

"We are eyeing the Rs 3,000-3,300 price category for our latest phones. Though priced low, these phones will still have all the competitive features like FM, camera, colour screen, speaker, and others," said Khanna.

Although, presently the lowest priced Fly phones are in the range of Rs 6,000-12,000, Khanna added that given the market requirements in near future, the company may introduce more lower-priced phones.

With an aim to grow fast in the GSM category, the company has set a target of doing a business of 100,000 phones by end of 2007, said Khanna, adding that by the next year it wants to be a Rs 300 crore company. Meanwhile, it is also in talks with major telecom operators for its Fly mobile phones and had made propositions to them recently.

Even as the GSM mobile phone market is valued at 5 million phones per month, in terms of shops and segments where Meridian Mobile is present, the company holds a market share of 2-5 per cent.