Catridge enters JV with SBI

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) Leading printer cartridge refilling services brand Cartridge World, today tied-up with SBI to offer easy funding opportunities for prospective franchisees to expand its operations in the country.

Cartridge World (South Asia) Chief Executive Officer Naveen Rakhecha said, ''We have opened stores in three major cites of India and received overwhelming response. Our target is to have over 250 Cartridge World stores across the country by 2010.'' He further added, ''While our focus is to introduce the unique concept of 'refill and save' to the Indian consumers, we also want to give the franchisees easy funding options to facilitate the store opening across regions.'' With the SBI tie-up franchisees can approach the bank for loans at convenient terms that can further speed up the process of making CW's world-class technology and quality of products and services available to consumers.

State Bank of India CGM SME BU Mr Chandrasekaran said, ''SBI has been a pioneer in lending to small businesses and the franchisee model is one that we feel holds much promise. The franchisee entrepreneurs of Cartridge World have the backing of a successful business model of a global leader.'' The concept of organised retail refilling is, of course, relatively new to the consumers in the Indian subcontinent and has been translated into a well thought out business model. The Bank has decided to partner Cartridge World in financing franchisee entrepreneurs in setting up their retail outlets, he said.

The Cartridge World store is a One-Stop-Shop for all printer and cartridge related needs. In India they have stores in Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

UNI