RC Group, founded in 2009 in Gujarat, was a leading manufacturer of mobile protective cases. The new vertical of RC Group, U&I, was founded in 2019 by Paresh Vij and is supported by Navin Vij and the young entrepreneur, Meet Vij (CTO). The company, promoted by the brand ambassador Shahid Kapoor and in collaboration with Bollywood diva, Zareen Khan, has 10 VMC machines, 120 molding machines, over 600 employees, 7 departments in India and 2 departments in China. U&I, today, has more than 400 products in 16 different categories. U&I has been awarded for the most affordable earphones and the largest mobile phone cover manufacturing. The brand has over 60 exclusive showrooms and presence in 29 states and 1500 cities and towns, backed by a channel network of over 3000 dealers. U&I is born to win driven by the maxim – ‘Music is my life.’ Today, U&I is one of the fastest growing providers of mobile accessories with a wide range of mobile accessories spread across different categories and models. In an interaction with Mobility magazine, Mr. Paresh Vij, Founder & Director, U&I, shares their company’s market strategy and future plans.
Mr. Paresh Vij shares, “We have been supplying mobile covers across India through our pan-India supply network. Our dealers and distributors have been encouraging us to get into the mobile accessories segment which is booming. So, in Jan 2019 we launched U&I adding mobile accessories to our product-line and then rapidly expanded our product portfolio. Our already existing supply network has been a great advantage for us to promote our mobile accessories pan-India. In Jan 2020, we celebrated our first anniversary in Bangkok. While launching mobile accessories, we thought if we had a brand ambassador, it will propel up UNI’s brand image and then our sales volumes. So we signed up Shahid Kapoor as our brand ambassador for 2 years. In Mar 2020, we want to conduct a mega channel conference along with Shahid Kapoor and some more stars.”
Talking about their promotion plan, Mr. Vij reveals, “For 2020, we planned 36 partner-meetings in different cities and towns in India to which dealers, distributors and also retailers. In Feb 2020, we already conducted conferences Kolkata and Indore; in Mar 2020 we are conducting in Jaipur and Chandigarh; and we will cover other cities and towns in the coming months. For these meetings, we are inviting even the small retailers in hundreds as we believe word of mouth promotion and direct contact with the end retailers is very effective while marketing our brand and products. Direct interaction with the partners, including retailers, helps to improve the clarity of our policies, increase the trust in our brand and gives the partners the push they need.”
U&i currently has over 400 products in 21 products categories, with Bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth neckbands, and Bluetooth TWS as their hot selling products.
Meet Vij, CTO, U&I adds, “We give great importance to the quality and we have two quality control wings in China to test the quality of our products. We import the products only after they are thoroughly tested and when we are doubly sure about the quality. Next, we have technically trained professionals and market experts who could survey and judge the latest needs of the India’s young generation and this helps us design and develop products that are currently trending with the youth. We have one young expert executive who is taking care of the design, quality, fashion and features of our products. We are giving 1-yr replacement warranty on all our products whereas most products in the grey market have no warranty.”
Today only 2% in India wear smartwatches and 98% still use other traditional watches, so there is a lot of untapped market. Talking about their strategy for smartwatches, Meet Vij shares, “We currently have two smartwatch models in Mar 2020 we will launch 4 more models and add more models in the coming months. In the new models of smartwatches, we are adding calling features.”
Elaborating on their market strategy and future plans, Mr. Paresh Vij concludes, “We are targeting the common consumers in the mass market segment so our products are in the affordable range. Currently we have about 40 distributors mainly concentrated in Kolkata, MP, Maharashtra and Punjab. We will add more distributors in the coming months and years. In 2020, we are aiming at 15% market share in the mobile accessories segments in India and later this year we are launching many new first-time-in-India products.”
