Samsung Mobile rejigging distribution plans for north

Samsung, one of the world’s largest mobile phone makers, is rejigging its sales and distribution network in northern India for better market penetration.

The northern region, comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, will have nine distribution partners against four earlier, Sunil Dutt, Samsung country head (mobile business), told Business Standard.

“The revamping will enable us to understand the market better and give us a faster response time in catering to the consumer demand,” he underlined.

Dutt was in town recently to appoint Shiel Trade Venture as the distributor for eastern UP and to hold meeting with the company’s trade partners.

“We hope to double our sales in UP and Uttarakhand in the next six months,” he added.

Samsung is the second largest mobile handset brand in India after Nokia. “Last year, we launched about 40 new handsets and this year also, we will launch many new offerings,” Dutt said.

Commenting on the grey market in India, he claimed that it accounted for less than 10 per cent today and was not a very profitable proposition for grey market operators.

“Our low-cost handset strategy is to provide easy user-interface and give India-specific value adds at affordable prices to the consumers,” he said adding almost 30 per cent of the mobile market could be attributed to replacements/upgrades.