Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Reliance Webstore will now follow the ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ business model to manage its handset distribution operations. This is the first time in India that the ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ concept is being deployed by a retail chain to distribute products.
This unique business model will leverage Reliance World stores to act as distribution hubs. Each store will be responsible for registering its own channel partners and handset retailers and develop its own mini-distribution network. As part of its foray into the handset distribution business, the company has already signed-up more than 1200 handset retailers and Multi-Brand Outlets (MBOs) in nearly 100 towns.
Commenting on the development, Mr Sarup Chowdhary, Director & CEO, Reliance Webstore Limited said,
“We continually identify new growth opportunities by leveraging our Group’s synergies across multiple sectors and competitive advantage of Reliance Webstore’s overall retail network. Our ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ model for handset distribution is unique to India and will result in remarkable convenience and efficiencies in the distribution chain. In addition to our exclusive distribution agreement with Coolpad Communications, we have also identified other new business opportunities to leverage this model for a larger participation in the Indian telecom retail sector.”
Coolpad, as part of its growth outlook, plans to establish an R&D unit in India. According to Mr Sami Al-Lawati, China Wireless’ India Head and Managing Director of Coolpad Communications, “We are currently scouting various locations across India for Coolpad’s R&D centre. The R&D unit in India will be critical to our business growth in India and our expansion across the Globe.”