Tata Teleservice`s plans expansion in Rajasthan

Tata Teleservices is going to revamp its infrastructure as well as extend its retail outlets in Rajasthan. The company has allocated Rs.100 crore for the plan. The expansion strategy includes setting up of 100 retail outlets and 113 cell sites by March, 2009. Presently, the company has 12% market share and hopes to increase the size by 2-3% only after the implementation of the expansion plan. The wide coverage of the teleservice will enable to draw more customers – believes Sanjay Vohra, COO, Tata Teleservices Limited. As revealed by Vohra, the company presently runs three different store formats – full service outlets; quick service outlets, which were earlier known as Tata True Value stores; and express outlets. The company is going to open full service outlets in cities like Jodhpur and Udaypur for broadband initiative and CDMA services. It is a complete retailing and service centre. The next format, the quick service outlets, provides services like recharging facilities along with retailing hand sets. Currently there are 117 such stores in Rajasthan. The company has a plan to increase the number of quick service stores to 200 by the next year. Express outlets exclusively cater to the rural population. The company plans to open 50-60 such stores in the next one year. Some of these outlets run on franchise mode and for selecting a franchisee, the company prefers a person with some prior experience in telecommunication, familiar with the population of the C & D category towns and socially respectable with strong bonding capability with the locality. The company looks for the location in commercial areas with easy accessibility. Areas of the retail store differs from format to format – a minimum area of 450-500 sq. ft. for full service outlet, 250 sq. ft. for quick service outlet and 75-100 sq. ft. for express outlet. Requirement of investment is anywhere between Rs.50,000 to Rs.25 lakh, depending on the format.