Movie dekho

The Mobile store has launched ‘mobile pe movie free offer’. To avail this offer consumer need to purchase a handset worth rs. 3000 or more. He shall be eligible for offer. As per offer he may get up to 12 movie tickets. consumer shall not be denied offer he shall get minimum two movie tickets.

TMS is very exciting with this offer. They said they are not giving pre-booking tickets. Tickets shall be open for all multiplex across India. So customer can choose his showtime, his move and his theater. All Major multiplex has been enrolled for this say PVR, Satyam, wave cinema, Galaxy.

This is unparalleled offer in industry and those who are looking to buy handset this weekend will be double bonanza as TMS says ‘ Mobile pe Movie Free.

Essar Retail has a combined turnover of $1.5 billion (Rs 6,750 crore), over half of which is contributed by steel retail followed by retail business in mobile and consumer durables, and information technology products and oil retailing.

Essar has brought all its retailing arms — The MobileStore (TMS) and The ElectronicStore — which retail mobile and consumer durables and information technology products, and Essar Hypermart, which retails steel and fuel retail operations of Essar Oil, under Essar Retail to draw synergies. Alok Gupta, the former director of Café Coffee Day, who recently moved job and city to join the group, is heading Essar Retail as its chief executive officer.

“This allows us to operate across the geographies — from metros, mini metros to rural India. We can talk across SECs (socio-economic classifications), age groups and consumers with diverse needs. We can offer life-time value for consumers, who use mobiles, energy and steel needs and keep coming to us for their needs,” Gupta said in an exclusive interaction with Business Standard.

He, however, ruled out venturing into any new segment of retail in the immediate future.

“For the next 12-24 months, we will continue to focus on our current verticals and within each vertical, we need to put new channels of retail, we have to explore the whole e-retailing and digital space,” Gupta added.

Essar Hypermart has 616 steel retail outlets and plans to increase the number to 750 by the end of this year. TMS, Essar’s telecom retail chain, has 1,000 stores and has 50 per cent share of the organised market . In the current financial year, TMS plans to add 250 stores, of which 75 per cent would be via the franchisee route. In fuel retail, Essar Oil runs 1,381 outlets, and an additional 254 are under various stages of construction.

Gupta says all the retail formats are Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) positive and he expects Essar Hypermart and TMS, its major retail ventures, to break-even by 2012-13. He did not give break-ups for the verticals.

Steel retailing business is getting readied for the second phase of growth.

Essar is collaborating with designers and fabricators to bring out better quality designs in products and sell these in its hypermarkets.

“If you look at steel products we use in our daily lives, their designs have not changed in the last 20-25 years. We believe there lies an opportunity. We are looking at pre-fabricated doors, equipment which we use in day to day life,” says Gupta. He says the company does not mind local retailers selling the products as long as they are produced by its manufacturing partners who tap designs provided by Essar and make everything with the steel made by the company.

Essar Retail also plans to make its steel outlets as a one-stop shop for construction-related products. Through Essar Hypermart and other formats such as Expressmart and Expresspoint (both are dealer-owned and dealer-run) it will sell cement, paints and other hardware under one roof.

Mobiles and IT products

Gupta says the company plans to aggressively sell consumer durables and IT products through TMS. It has already started selling durables and IT products in 50-odd stores in NCR and plans to take it to other cities.

He believes display and catalogue sales is possible in 40 per cent of TMS stores and the rest through catalogue sales.

“We believe the market is moving towards small-box formats, where consumer wants easy access. On an average, we do seven and eight million transactions in TMS across the categories. Our objective is to work with footfall and try and fit into consumer durables and IT,” he adds.

TMS has kept the assortment fairly tight and displays LCD televisions, laptops and cameras on display and rest like washing machines, refrigerators and so on are sold through catalogue.

But how confident is Essar of retailing durables through TMS work when a host of chains such as Croma, Reliance Digital and Next offer wide range of products at competitive prices?

“We offer sheer convenience, value and credibility customers do not mind buying a high value item in small box store. It is a matter of leveraging our current relationship and provide right value,” he added.

The company is also looking at retailing consumer durables and IT products through Essar Oil outlets

Armed with nine years of professional experience in sales and marketing of FMCGs, Chakrawarti joined Trent Ltd in November 2000. He is a graduate from IIT Kanpur and holds a PGDM degree from IIM Bangalore.

Meanwhile, Ashutosh Pandey, deputy COO, will take up a new role as COO of Landmark.

• Customers at TMS to get booklet containing wide range of discount vouchers for high-end travelling destinations, eating-out, lifestyle and holidaying
• Upto 30 % off on select handsets from top brands, such as, Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, Motorola, LG, Micromax and Spice
• Mobile Phone accessories free with a wide range of handsets

With romance in the air, the month of February brings an array of offers to all The MobileStore customers.  So, now buyers can own the latest handset that they have always desired from the wide range , at best prices and also get a booklet full of discount coupons to enjoy the whole month holidaying, travelling and eating out at never- before- rates with their special ones.

To reiterate its commitment to the Indian mobile consumers and to reward customers who have shown continued loyalty, by retuning to The MobileStore time and again, the country’s largest telecom retailer has introduced special February offers for all its customers.

Here is a chance to avail a “Discount voucher booklet” on purchase of every mobile handset above Rs. 3000/, and extend your Valentine day celebration to the entire month by availing a wide range of discounts and offers on holidays, travelling, shopping, gifts, lifestyle, dining and entertainment. In fact the customers can spend on things they have always wanted.

The MobileStore is also offering select handsets at great discounts upto 30% off from various brands ranging from Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, Motorola, LG, Micromax and Spice to make the month even more exciting, Besides these the stores are also offering a wide range of phone accessories free on select handsets.

Commenting on the new offering, Mr. Alok Gupta, Group Head –Essar Retail, said “We, at The MobileStore are always striving to make a better connect with the consumers. Sometime back we introduced Dial-a-phone offer, which has set a new trend in the industry. Now with the February offers we expect to get even closer to our customers. Experience selling being the hallmark of our stores, we are always eager to give something more to our customers; hence we will continue to come up with innovative schemes. The February offers are one step closer towards enhancing buying experience.”

The offers are available across 1100 stores spread over 200 cities in India, throughout February. Needless to say that it would be the early birds who will benefit the most. So indulge in shopping like never before.

“We will be scaling up our business by 50-60 per cent by the end of March. The time is right now because all the sentiments of economic downturn and problems with retail are over. People are spending and retail space is available at the right price, which was not the case earlier,” Srikanth Gokhle, CEO of The MobileStore (TMS) told Business Standard.

The company has started the process of adding 200 stores and has around 100 stores in the pipeline. To hasten its plans, it decided to adopt the franchise model in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns. The model will help the company add around 500-600 stores, leveraging the existing supply chain system which has already been set up by the company. TMS will also make working capital investments in these franchises.

“We will give franchisees the know-how and training. We will also provide them with furniture and fixtures to maintain the identical look of the brand, across all our stores. The franchise model is the best way to tap growing markets in smaller towns, which is where the telecom market is now heading to,” said Gokhale.

Falling handset prices, with increased features, rise of Indian brand mobile phones and higher telecom penetration are helping handset sales grow in smaller towns. The company will start advertising in national newspapers for franchises very soon.

In addition to increasing the number of outlets, the company is planning to scale up by way of acquisitions. TMS is in discussion with a key national-level retail player and is conducting due diligence on the deal. It is also in talks with three retailers at the regional level to acquire assets.

As the telecom markets get closer to the launch of 3G services, TMS is also gearing to sell more smartphones. “We expect smartphone sales to increase from 15 per cent to 30 per cent in the next six months. All the major brands like Nokia, Samsung, BlackBerry are aggressively launching new models in the category,” said Gokhale.

To leverage on this, TMS has started a new service called connected world, where it gives a live demonstration of all the applications possible in the 3G era. The company has already started this service across some of its outlets and plans to augment soon.

Gokhale earlier served as the CEO of ‘X-cite’, a large format consumer durables and IT (CDIT) store chain, which was recently acquired by The MobileStore.

Gokhale would be responsible for running The MobileStore business and driving the group’s entry into retailing of CDIT products, The MobileStore said in a statement.

“It’s exciting times for the retail sector as consumer confidence scales up again. We have aggressive growth plans for our businesses and would bring in several innovations to differentiate ourselves and offer greater value to our customers,” Gokhale said.

In his earlier assignments, Gokhale has led Al Ghanim Industries as Managing Director (Retail). He takes on the reins from Rajiv Agarwal, who has moved within the Essar Group to a new assignment, the statement added.

The Mobile Store, promoted by the Essar Group, offers telecom products like mobile handsets and accessories, new connections and recharges, repairs, DTH connections and bill payments options. It has over 1,300 company-owned operated stores across 200 cities.

Xcite brand name will be changed to The Electronics Store and layout will resemble that to The Mobile Store. Formal announcement is scheduled to be at end of march.

Xcite has large format store like Croma and reliance digital. It has stores located in premium locations like in Delhi and NCR. This news has been confirmed by both however detail of acquisition yet has to be make public.

The Mobile store has 1300 retail outlet in India with presence almost every state.

The mobile store so far has been biggest retailer in India.  It has Pan India presence from Kashmir to Kerala and Gujrat to Guwahati. It has currently 1300 touch point. Second in the list is Hotspot spice. They are on expansion mode and diverged to franchise model for expansion. company own company operated store are pain to operate on little margin. In mobile industry turn over is high while margins shrink to 2-3%. Hotspot has been first to innovate franchise model and run it successful. after testing prototype they are gunning on it. In Rajasthan itself they have made 300 franchise.  Plan for them is to have 5000 touch point by 2012.

The mobile store as said biggest mobile retail chain has not come with something conclusive. It has been reported that they are in pipeline to purchase a biggy in ‘One Mobile’. so when Hotspot is banking on franchise to expand its net ‘The mobile store’ is looking for acquisition and merger. It will be interesting to see how economy revive will boost mobile retailing and particularly these two giants.