New Delhi, June 30 (IANS): Chinese handset manufacturer Gionee on Tuesday announced that it is expanding its offline retail channel through collaboration with several retail partners.

The partnership retail players will include Spice, The Mobile Store, Mobiliti World, Jumbo Electronics, Croma Retail and Planet M.

With this move, Gionee handsets will now be available across over 1,000 stores and the brand aims to sell over 35,000 additional devices every month.

Commenting on the association, Arvind Vohra, India CEO and MD, Gionee India, said: "The Indian smartphone market is growing at a rapid pace and this association is our effort to increase our presence and making our handsets readily accessible to our customers anywhere and everywhere."

"Our consumers can now walk into any of these retail outlets and experience a Gionee smartphone. Through this move we look at increasing our sale by over 10 percent in the coming year," he added.

Currently, Gionee sells through its exclusive brand stores, shop-in-shops and the company's e-store. The company aims to open 250 brand stores next year and though it already has 800 service centres up and running, it further aims to have 1,000 by 2015-end.