Meridian Mobile eyes Rs 100 crore turnover

To spend $2 mn to market its phones

Meridian Mobile, a part of the UK-based Meridian group, is all set to take the Indian mobile phone market by storm.

The company, which has just launched two mobile phone models in the country, Fly SL500m and Fly SL300m, with the Fly MP330 scheduled to be unveiled soon, will invest $2 million to promote its phone brands in the country.

With the the recent launches, the company is targeting sales turnover of Rs 100 crore in the current financial year.

Meridian's mobiles, sold under the brand name Fly, was launched about two years ago in East and Central Europe. It has since emerged as a strong player in that market.

The company's headquarters is in the UK, while the research & development (R&D) centre in based in Russia. The company is planning to launch its mobiles in Spain, Germany and South Asia shortly.

Speaking to Business Standard, Manoj Kumar, head, sales (west), said, "In India, we are planning to sell 2.5 lakh mobile phones, and earn turnover of around Rs 100 crore in the current year. We will spend $2 million on marketing to promote maximum sales of mobile phones in the country. Our marketing strategy is to focus on store branding and forging alliances with retailers. We hope to reach 5,000 premium counters, shortly. Currently, Meridian has 33 services centres across India, of which 7 are in Mumbai alone."

"Fly is known internationally for its distinctive, chic styling and features that appeal to all segments of the youth. Indeed, in Europe Fly has been well received by youngsters, and commands a leading position in this segment. The brand has a range of models that are smartly valued and packaged with heavy features coupled with unique styling. This gives it a differentiated edge over other key players. Meridian has a huge interest for developing retail in telecom and is currently looking at the scenario to bring in investments as soon as FDI policies allow it," he said.

The recently launched Fly SL500m is a chic and slim slider phone, with 1.3 mega-pixel camera with expandable memory, video ring tones with MPEG 4 and IRDA, bluetooth and other features such as video recorder and player, MP3 player and 64 tone polyphonic and MP3 tones.

The model is priced at Rs 9,999. Priced at Rs. 7,999, the 'Fly SL300m' is a also a very slider camera phone. It has features such as MP3 player, video player and recorder, 64 tone polyphonic and MP3 ring tones and expandable memory.