LAHORE ( MEDIA REPORT )
It has been barely seven months since Haier Pakistan further diversified its portfolio and entered the saturated cellphone market, but the overwhelming response has forced the company to pursue its expansion plans more aggressively.
Haier is the first company that is establishing a mobile phone assembly plant near Lahore with an investment of $5 million. The plant, which is likely to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2016, will have the capacity to assemble 1.5 million cellphones annually.
“It takes years for a mobile company to diversify in such a competitive market, but we did it quite brilliantly. The coming year will be exciting for us as by March we will be launching the mobile assembly plant in Pakistan as per our commitment to bringing in technology and making our products more competitive,” said Zeshan Qureshi, Chief Executive Officer of Haier Mobiles, in an interview with The Express Tribune.
For Qureshi, the company’s product range has expanded to 27 in a short span, as it was only seven at the beginning. By March 2016, the company is hopeful that it will be able to further diversify the product range to around 35.
“The quality of our products is being appreciated in the market; this is due to our strong research and development wing that helped in selling over 0.5 million units in about seven months,” he added.
Flexible prices
The price range is also flexible. Mobile sets are available at as low as $15 and go up to $300. The company has introduced three mobile categories for low, medium and high-end customers.
“We are about to launch a high-end product, V-6, which will be available at $450, the highest so far for our company,” Qureshi said.
He was of the view that any mobile brand should have a portfolio of 25 products in order to penetrate 100% in the market.
“At present, we have 80% penetration in Pakistan’s mobile market via our network of 18,000 distributors. There might be few areas remaining but we hope to reach those soon.”
The company has also introduced theft and accidental insurance for all its products through its 29 customer care centres.
Journey in Pakistan
Haier is operating in Pakistan’s market for 15 years and has established itself as a reliable name in household products. According to the company, every household has at least one appliance of Haier.
“The new era is of internet of things and every electronic appliance manufactured these days has these features. In order to connect these appliances with internet, we need a mobile or a tablet. And we have introduced mobiles to connect with the world,” he said.
Qureshi cited taxation and grey trafficking as areas that were affecting the brands. However, he said, it could be curbed if brands started investing in local markets as Haier was doing.
“We can only force the government to create an eco-system for mobile companies if they have strong presence and contribute reasonably to the economy, technology transfer and job creation.”
Talking about customer behaviour, Qureshi said mobile users were becoming intelligent and they did not look much at prices. “Today’s customer is intelligent enough to have all knowledge of mobiles; they look for value-added features, hardware and brands. They are giving us a tough time but it is helping us produce better products.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 21st, 2015.