“InFocus is 100% Made in India”: Piyush Puri, VP India, InFocus

In a one-on-one interaction with PCQuest, Piyush Puri, VP India & South Asia, Innocom Electronics shares InFocus new vision for the Indian Market.

Under the New Brand licensing agreement signed with Foxconn, InFocus has re-launched themselve as a new brand in the Indian Market. Company has launched Turbo5 smartphone first from a series of product lined up especially developed for the Indian Market keeping in context the Indian consumer’s needs.

1. Tell us about the Distribution presence and channel strategies for InFocus in India.

Our focus is more towards innovation in product portfolio. The products lined up in September will be coming out with new innovations. By the end of the next quarter, our feature phones  will be available in 50K retail outlets; Smartphones  will be available in 8 states by this quarter. For offline segment, we will appoint 500 distribution partners all across India. InFocus will be focusing on channel ecosystem and online both for all India distribution for feature phones and smartphones. Our National distribution partner is VRP Telemetics and they will further appointing state distributors.

2. What are the numbers of products you are planning to launch in the market in each segment?

In the budget segment,  8 feature phones starting from 699/- are going to be launched soon with 100 days replacement. In the same  category, we are doing R&D and working with Jio to give a 4G feature phone to the customers. Developing a 4G feature phone is not a major challenge but we want to give a platform in feature phone like WhatsApp, Facebook, Money transfer, Browser to the customers. One the other hand, we will have 8 new smartphones separately 4 for online and 4 for offline market.

3. What is your branding strategy across each segment?

Right now, InFocus is branding across product portfolio and new innovations. In feature phone category, we are developing a new sub brand—Hero series. For the smartphone category, we will have 3 series A, M and N. A series will be for offline channel, M series will exclusively available for Online and our high-end N series will be launched in November this year.

4. From where do you see more traction—Offline or Online?

The more traction is coming from online sales especially from  the smartphone category. While, offline traction is more for feature phone segment, as they are  getting more into distribution presence. The overall visibility and reach of our brand will be from the retail market and then we will enter in smartphone segment also.

5. Where are your manufacturing units?

InFocus is 100% Made in India. However, models are designed in China.  We have 2 manufacturing units in Noida one for Smartphone and the other one are for feature phones.

6. What is your future roadmap for next 12 months?

For this FY, InFocus plans to introduce 16 new products, aiming to reach 6 Million volume by volume by the end of this year. The next 12 months will be the time to watch out for InFocus as we launch an array of innovative and disruptive products in both online and offline channels. We have recently ramped up our service network across India with 326 after sales service touch points. We have also strengthened our backend processes to deliver a great after sale service experience to our fans. We are also planning to create 500 service centers touch points by end of this year.