Home-grown mobile handset company Zen Mobile is all set to explore global markets, particularly in Africa and Asia, besides consolidating its position in the Indian market. Currently doing good business in northern and eastern states, the company is now expanding its base to southern and western states.
“We are not only expanding our reach to southern and western states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, but also looking at new export markets in Africa and Asia. We are already present in neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal and now we want to explore African and other Asian markets where potential is immense,” Zen Mobile Managing Director Deepesh Gupta told this correspondent.
The mobile handset-maker, which holds good market position in northern and eastern states such as Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, has chalked out special strategy to go pan-India in a big way. “This year we will be spending almost Rs.50 crore on marketing initiatives as we go into southern and western states focussing mainly on Tier-II and Tier-II cities,” Mr. Gupta said.
At present, Zen Mobile has a market share of about 2.5 per cent and selling three-lakh units a month. The company hopes to double its sales by the end of 2012. “From Rs.350 crore revenues in 2010-11, we hope to cross Rs.500 crore in the current fiscal. We sold over 23-lakh handsets in the last fiscal and in 2011-12 we hope to sell over 50-lakh units. For the past three years, we have been clocking almost 100 per cent sales growth…and signing of superstar Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador has given further boost to sales,” Mr. Gupta said.
Though the company is currently importing its handsets from China, where it also has a research and design centre, Zen Mobile is now planning to set up a manufacturing unit in India soon. It is also planning to make foray into the smartphone and tablet PC market in the next fiscal, besides introducing unique range of feature phones. “We are consistently introducing new products catering to specific needs of handset users in India. Next year too we will add new feature-rich phones in our portfolio to cater to more users in the country and abroad,” Mr. Gupta added.
