Spice-owned Hot Spot to open 1,500 new stores

Hot Spot, the mobile phone retailing venture of B K Modi-led Spice Telecom, is evaluating a franchise model to expand its network in India and also plans to set up around 1,500 new company-owned stores in next 18 months. Hot Spot CEO Sanjeev Mahajan said that the company is working on a greenfield franchise route to open around 1,500 new stores across India, and is also looking at setting up a similar number of company-owned stores in one and a half years. He also said that the company is developing a model that will empower the franchisee, make them learn and earn and drive profitability for the business. Currently, the company operates 250 outlets spread across 20 cities in India with around 100 outlets in Delhi and NCR. The format of these stores range from 50 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft. The company will come up with a store spread across 10,000 sq ft area in next six months. The company, which offers around 250 mobile handset models and as many as 1,000 mobile accessories at its stores, is also working on down stocking strategy and local purchasing of products to drive in better margins. According to Mahajan, most of the company`s existing outlets have already broken even and the franchise model would enable the new outlets to break even within six months of operations.