Vivek Pratap Singh, Branch Manager, Ringing Bells
What is the background of Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd, the company which launched the most affordable 4G smartphone Smart 101?
The promoter family hails from a strong background of a family steeped in the rural belt of Western UP and involved in agro-commodity products like sugar, spices, rice, pulses, dry fruits and a complete menu of allied products trading over the past 3 generations. The network in rural and semi-urban India, anchored particularly in the North, is time tested for over 36 years and has endured the vicissitudes of time.
The idea occurred to the current generation to leverage this strength and contribute in a humble way to the cascade of economic inclusive growth based on the platforms of Make in India, Skill India and Digital India while leveraging the initiative of “Start Up India Stand Up India”.
What’s the response towards your products after you released major advertisement campaign on Monday? Any numbers with respect to smartphone cum feature phone bookings?
A very positive and a very very huge response.
When would you start the delivery of your phones to people who have booked/registered on your site?
Feature phones will be delivered in 7 to 14 days whereas smartphone Smart 101 shall be delivered by end February.
When are you planning to make smartphone and feature phone available in the open market?
The mobile phones will be available in the open market from 1st week of March.
Is the company self-funded or investor backed?
At present the company is self-funded but with plans for associate and allied funding as the business plans actualize in tandem with the cash flow cycles. Discussions have commenced with banks and institutions.
With respect to the after market service what is your strategy. Are you planning to have your own or would you tie up with any company?
In the interim, we have set up an association for more than 650+ service centres pan India. Longer term our plan is to have our own integrated service centres.
There are consumer complaints that no confirmation mail has been sent to people who have booked phones online. How do you explain it?
We received unexpected demand on our site and the system was not equipped to handle that kind of traffic. Due to some unexpected error and technical problems in our servers, we are facing this issue.
Is Ringing Bells planning to manufacture mobile phones in India seeing the outstanding response?
Yes of course. Our prime motivation is Make in India.
How big is the company in terms of manpower and how big is your R&D and product testing set-up?
We already have a strength of almost 300 direct and 2,000 indirect employees which is poised for an incredible increase in the short term in sync with our plans and market access. At present we have associate testing facilities which focuses on intrinsic details of pre-despatch inspections, quality control and even post delivery service are attended too. This workforce is almost another 2,500. As we build our own direct workforce we would also have the same number of workforce at the least.
