IndiaRetailBiz

Subhiksha’s, the Chennai-based no-frills, deep discount retail chain, which for about a decade since its inception was operating in traditional business verticals of fruits & vegetables, food, grocery, and pharmaceuticals, has done quite well for its new “mobile” vertical.

Subhiksha’s mobile vertical, though only a few months old, has already begun making about one fifth contribution in its overall revenues. It is expected that with additional investment in the pipeline, the telecom vertical will soon be able to increase its contribution from 20% to 25% of the gross revenues.

According to R. Subramanian, Founder and CEO of Subhiksha, who was speaking to the Indian Express, the company has decided to invest about Rs. 100 crore this year in new stores and other facilities. The new stores will be both in “standalone” and “composite” formats, added Subramanian.

Though, relatively a new player in the “mobile” business, Subhiksha, which recently entered Kolkata and Kerala markets, has been able to create a network of 300 exclusive mobile retail stores and around 400 composite store. This network of retail outlets has already garnered about 15% of the organised “mobile” retail market.

Riding on boom in the communications sector, Subhiksha had decided to add mobile products to its portfolio of consumer goods. Though, head quartered in Chennai, the company had begun testing waters for this business from the national capital.

Mobile business despite its stupendous growth in the past few years is apart from being highly fragmented is still dominated by unorganised players. With over 250 million mobile connections, rising at the rate of about seven million connections every month, the sector is expected to grow very rapidly as private players like Bharti and Reliance train their guns on rural India.

Besides Subhiksha, Mobile nxt, The mobile Shop, e-Zone, Croma, Reliance Digital, are among the major mobile players in the sector that besides new mobile phones offer phone accessories and other related services like recharging of vouchers.