Anuraag Nalwaya – MD, Iccon
With mobile phones becoming all pervasive and an instrumental part of our lives, their accessories too, have a significant role to play in today’s age of technology. They not only supplement your device but also give an uber-cool look to your style statement. fccon, a stylish mobile accessory-maker, is leveraging this trend by offering a range of products – from mobile chargers and power banks to data cables and earphones – for the millenials. The company, which designs, engineers and manufactures its products in fndia itself, strives to make it even bigger by expanding its product portfolio and increasing its reach. Ramesh Kumar Raja caught up with Anuraag Nalwaya, MD, Iccon, to know more about the brand, its market positioning, future plans and more. bxcerpts: How’s the brand Iccon positioned itself in hyper-competitive India market which is dominated by a number of big and small players from India and abroad? The interesting fact about the mobile accessories market is that even though it appears to be a hyper competitive market, there is no clear cut leader across the globe. It is a very big opportunity that such a multi-billion dollar industry globally doesn’t have a leading brand, and that is where we come in. We have been preparing hard to fill this gap, and with our two stateof-the-art manufacturing setup, Iccon is poised to change gears rapidly and expand to become a major player in this space.
You have a very limited number of product categories to offer. How has been the response so far? When we started two and a half years back, we just had batteries in our portfolio. Soon, the market demand encouraged us to start data cables and mobile chargers as well. In a short span of less than 18 months, we built another factory for chargers and data cables with top of the line equipment from Japan and Singapore. Today, Iccon not only operates in charging/power category but has also added 18 models of earphones. The product line is ever-expanding and
we have been getting huge success in the music category too.
Do you have any plan to expand your product portfolio in the coming time? Soon, we are all set to launch 2 new models of Bluetooth neckband followed by another 3 models in November. 3A and 4A chargers too will be launched in November followed by some smart wearables in December.
Which are the areas you are targeting in India? We plan to be pan India before Diwali 2020 in offline category. There is a lot of planning going on, as corporate gifting category too has been responding well to the accessories. Our OEM vertical also has been witnessing tremendous growth and we hope it will continue to grow at the similar pace in the coming year too, as there is a lot of shift in demand in Indian market towards quality goods.
What is your approach to the “after sales service” which remains an issue for majority of electronics companies? This is exactly why we established manufacturing units in India rather than just importing from China. Since mobile accessories do not possess a great entry barrier challenge, every year lots of brands come in and get wiped out of market due to service issues. We have ‘over-the-counter’ return policy where replacement is handed over to customers immediately by the retailer and the retailer stock is replenished by the distributor within a stipulated timeframe.
There is a parallel grey market in India thriving on the counterfeit accessories and devices. How do you deal with them? Grey market is a big challenge not just to our industry but also poses a big hindrance to the nation’s progress. Lots of fake goods are being sold in our markets by both Indian and foreign players. We have been able to win customers’ heart by providing a genuine capacity at a fair price, and with changing customer preferences and some strict government laws, the market is moving towards the organized segment at a faster pace.
What are your outreach and investment plans and which platform you are going to exploit more- online or offline? For us, offline remains the major focus point in the coming years as lot of width and depth needs to be covered. We have already invested around INR 30 crore across two projects and a similar investment is what we are looking at in the coming years as the product portfolio widens further.
Please tell us something about R&D and innovation at Iccon? Innovation is what
drives me personally and keeps me excited to go to work every single day. We have done lots of innovation not only in product but also manufacturing processes like moulding/assembling. All our products are currently designed keeping the Indian context in mind of value for money and stable products. Our chargers are designed to perform in the widest voltage range compared to any other player in the industry. Similarly, we were the first brand to introduce children- and elderly-friendly data cables under Ulta Pulta series which could be flipped and used from any side. The emergence of IOT has opened a new avenue of growth for many tech companies. Is Iccon going to leverage this trend? Nobody in India can deny the fact that IOT will not revolutionize our everyday life in a big way. Our R&D team is already geared up against this task and we may see lots of products coming from Iccon in this category next year, as mass adoption of this technology becomes easier. ■
“Since mobile accessories do not possess a great entry barrier challenge, every year lots of brands come in and get wiped out of market due to service issues. We have ‘over-the-counter’ return policy where replacement is handed over to customers immediately by the retailer and the retailer stock is replenished by the distributor within a stipulated timeframe”