Spice Group Is Selling 120 CellPhone Retail Chain HotsPot
Spice Group Is Selling 120 CellPhone Retail Chain HotsPot

BK Modi-owned Spice Group is selling its 120-store cellphone retail chain Hotspot for an undisclosed amount in a private equity-supported management buyout by its executive director, Subhasish Mohanty.

Spice Mobility Chairman Dilip Modi said “Divestment of the retail business is a strategic step since the company wants to focus on digital services, financial services and payments, and digital entertainment working with telecom operators in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Last year we had sold a significant stake in the mobile phone business and now the retailing business since these have become non-core areas, hence the exit. Business would focus on the National Capital Region and Kolkata, where its existing stores are located. Hotspot is one of the largest cellphone chains in these two markets, employing more than 500 people”.

With this, Spice is the latest among large groups to exit the cellphone retailing business. The Essar Group recently shut The MobileStore chain, which was at one point the country’s largest, due to funding problems, while the Future Group has decided to downsize its mobile and electronics retailing.

Spice last month exited the Hotspot chain in the South where it had 50 stores in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. It sold the business to Bengaluru-based Global Access, which is into distribution for Micromax and Vivo in the southern market.

 
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