JOIN USEnergizer Hard Case, the mobile brand owned by the US-headquartered manufacturer of battery including Eveready brand, has announced the entry into Indian market within 40 days.
In an interaction with DH, Energizer Hard Case South Asia and South East Asia Business Development Director Manish Prasad said the company is here to take on the competition from Chinese and Indian mobile manufacturers.
“We have a plan to come up with three variants of Energizer Hard Case products with Android operating system. We will have 5.3-inch Energy E520LTE and 5.5-inch Energizer E550LTE smartphones. Also, there is rugged phone IP68,” he said.
The water- and dust-resistant, the Energizer Hard Case mobile phones are equipped with a powerful battery that will provide 20 hours of power backup. Energizer phones are mainly intended for professionals in the building sector, transport, supply chain and outdoor craftsmen.
Apart from phones, Energizer Hard Case is also looking at penetrating India’s growing mobile accessories market. “We have lined up 50 product variants in six categories. Since the Indian mobile market is registering exponential growth, we expect more scope for selling accessories in the country,” he said.
According to IDC statistics, the Indian mobile market saw 109.1 million units of smartphones being shipped for all of 2016, and this was a modest 5.2% annual growth. Overall, 136.1 million units of feature phones were shipped in 2016.
Prasad said the company will invest $1 million as part of its marketing and brand building initiatives.“We have tied up with online channels like Snapdeal and Amazon in the initial phase. Also, leading offline players will also become partners. We will have our product launch in New Delhi and Bengaluru,” he said.
DH News Service
Energizer Hard Case has tied up with a national distributor. “In the second year, we will go for opening our own stores to display products. On manufacturing, we are right now opting for importing products from China. Once we achieve a certain volume, we will think of being a part of Make in India,” he said.
According to recent IDC data, Indian companies lost the top five slot to Chinese companies in the Indian mobile market. Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo are the leading players along with South Korean company Samsung.