Aircel plans to open 500 retail stores by 2015

Telecom service providerAircel is planning to open 500 branded outlets, XPRESS stores, across the country by 2015.

The company is aggressively expanding its retail footprint. It has already set up 200 XPRESS stores across the country.

These stores are based on the FOFO (Franchisee Owned Franchisee Operated) model and will provide Aircel’s products and services, new connections, recharges and top-ups, resolution of customer queries, assistance and support to all new and existing Aircel customers.

Vipul Saurabh, national head —operations and customer support, Aircel, said, “We are delighted to expand our national retail footprint by opening up 200 Aircel XPRESS stores across the country. These XPRESS Stores are Franchisee Owned and Franchisee Operated, which is a testimonial to the trust and belief that our trade partners have in the brand Aircel.”

He added, “This partnership with trade is a rewarding model for both Aircel and the franchisee owners as we are able to make our customers experience unique products and services through the XPRESS stores and franchisees get to set up a sustainable business. We plan to elevate the number of Aircel XPRESS stores to 500 stores by first half of 2015.”

According to Cellular Operators Association of India, Aircel had 71.15 mn subscribers at the end of April.

Aircel has entered into an agreement with directory service ASKME which will help the operator’s customers access contact information of services and utilities like taxi, restaurant, carpenter etc, on an exclusive toll free number.

At the same time, if a utility provider is an Aircel customer present in ASKME database, then for him there is no requirement to pay an upfront payment for registration.