Mobile Magic targets 200 outlets by 2007

Claiming to be first and the fastest growing chain of retail outlets for
mobile phones in India, Nagpur-based Mobile Magic has announced an ambitious
plan to cover the length and breadth of the country by March 2007. “Our target
is to have 200 Mobile Magic outlets to cover all the big cities in the country,”
said Vijay Singh, CEO, Mobile Magic. Of these 25 will be based out of Mumbai
alone. One will be opened very soon.

The company launched its operations on July 14, 2004, with a single outlet in
Nagpur and after evaluating its success for nine months opened another nine
franchisee outlets in the next three months. Today it sports a network of 36
Mobile Magic outlet covering four states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat and Chattisgarh.

What makes these multi-brand mobile handset outlets unique is its presence
not just as a pure sale outlet for handset, but also as an outlet for sales of
operator services (eg sale of SIM cards), repair services and application
download facility at an affordable price. Interestingly, the company claims to
have achieved 50 percent of its revenue just from repair and download services.

Vijay Singh, CEO, Mobile Magic

The company operates its retail outlets in three models, ie company-owned
company-operated, company-owned dealer-operated and dealer-owned
dealer-operated. However, Mobile Magic controls the supplies to all the
operating outlets. Currently, the company has only two company-owned and
company-operated outlet, one each from Pune and Nagpur. On an average each of
the outlets have a 600 sq ft areas.

From the 200 planned outlets, the company intends to have at least 10 outlet
of their own, which mean it will fall under the category of company-owned
company-operated outlets. The company claims the return-on-investment (RoI) for
franchisee is in the range of 50 to 60 percent.

As of now the Mobile Magic has been funding its operations from their own kitty,
but will consider raising funds from other sources after the setting up of the
100th outlet. “We may then raise funds by way of loans if required,” said
Singh.

The company is also into training business related to mobile repairs through
an institute called the Mobile Magic Institute of Technology (MMIT). Students
with a diploma or bachelors degree in science are given admission to this
institute, which churns out about 30 trained engineers every month. The students
are also given job guarantee during the training period, most of who are
absorbed in Mobile Magic. Student joining this institute are trained to repair
any brand of mobile. They are also taught many other activities relating to
applications loading and data synchronizing.