The Essar Group has ended its alliance with the Virgin group for its retail format, The Mobile Store. The company had tied up with the Virgin Group for mobile retailing in 2007. The arrangement was due for renewal on April 30 this year. However, the companies mutually decided to not renew the agreement. Essar Retail paid Virgin a fixed fee for the usage of its brand and consultation services.
Essar had tied up with virgin to use the latter’s expertise in mobile retailing. Virgin runs over 5000 stores in UK and Essar believed that the company?s expertise would help them make forays into the mobile retail market.
However, Essar remains aggressive about its expansion plans. Essar had invested over Rs 12 billion to set up its mobile retailing arm and currently has over 1,000 outlets. It plans to open another 200 outlets across India and will use the franchisee model for the first time this year.
The Mobile Store also plans to use the digital medium significantly and has also introduced the home delivery model for its customers.
