“After Lockdown, Demand For Budget And Mid-Range Products Will Be More Vigorous And Diversified”

RealMe has completed two years of operations on May 4 in India. It is an equally loved and famous brand among buyers for its wide range of product portfolio that suits all pockets. The number speaks for the disruptive brand in all quarters since then as it has consistently been among top five mobile brands in India. The 14 per cent market share in Q1 2020 to become the fourth largest mobile brand testifies its acceptance. Madhav Sheth, Vice President, realme and CEO of realme India, is leading the brand since its inception in 2018 and has successfully steered it from nowhere to everywhere but, the COVID-19 and continuous lockdown makes him think too about the future and strategies. He had shared his thoughts with Haider Ali Khan. Edited Excerpts:

- Haider Ali Khan

What has been the impact of lockdown on the business?

Due to the extended lockdown, there are many challenges faced by businesses with huge impact from sales, manufacturing and cost.

There was a complete suspension on sales and manufacturing since the lockdown. As per the Government directives, our Greater Noida facility in Uttar Pradesh was suspended since 21st March, 2020 along with sales being a halt. We also postponed our Narzo series launch event and a few AIoT products that were scheduled for April till today.

Secondly on cost factors. The outbreak of COVID-19 has also influenced countries like China, Korea, U.S., Japan, where most of the upstream component suppliers of smartphones are located. However, the demand on the sales side also got reduced due to the lockdown as most brands couldn’t operate their business and had to delay product plans. In the future, the disturbance of manufacturing along with the new surge of demand post lock-down might have further impacts on the price of components, which eventually influences smartphone selling price.

Amid the lockdown, manpower disruption was also seen. The migrant workers, truckers and helpers have gone back to their hometown. It will take 2 to 4 weeks to revamp the entire production cycle even after we got the permit to reopen our factory. We are aiming to open 25% of normal production, so there might be some shortage of stocks in the upcoming one month due to the surge of demand post lock-down and new product launches.