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Our Bureau

Bangalore, July 2 Meridian Mobile, a UK-based company that aims to garner a sizeable share in the mobile handset market, has announced an aggressive plan to target the tech-savvy South for its rapid growth.

Meridian Mobile, part of the UK-based Meridian Group, which launched its flagship brand — Fly — in East and Central Europe, two years ago, made its debut in India only last year.

With a presence in the UK, Spain, Germany and South Asia, Meridian Mobile is eyeing rapid growth in India, with its focus on the South Indian market.

It has already sold 2 lakh handsets. It expects to garner two to four per cent market share in the next few months, said Mr Rajiv Khanna, CEO (India Operations).

‘Fly’ phones are already vying with leading brands in multi-brand stores such as Shoppers’ Stop, Subhiksha, Pantaloon and Spencer’s in the big cities of the South. It has also tied up with distributors in tier-II cities in the region for marketing its products.

Mr Khanna said: “Our marketing strategy is to focus on store branding and forging alliances with retailers”.

Meridian has appointed film actor Malaika Arora Khan as its brand ambassador and plans to step up marketing efforts by entering into strategic alliance with leading service providers.

Fly is aiming to grow with the replacement market giving it an impetus, Mr Khanna said adding “It is important to have fully loaded phones as the replacement market gets stronger”. Meridian currently has eight models in the Indian market, and is scheduled to launch four more models this month.

Having consolidated its market in the Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 price segment, it plans to launch phones in the Rs 5,000 range, Mr Khanna added.

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