Within a span of three years, India has witnessed a sea change in the IT hardware scenario of eastern India. While earlier the growth story of the region took off with the influx of a host of players in the software and BPO sector, in the last three years it is hardware that has been creating ripples. This has attracted global IT players to recognize eastern India as the next potential IT hub, and forced them to share their investments with states like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

Like the Prince of Kolkata, Saurav Ganguly, the city gradually became the center of attraction for all and sundry, for both its advantages and disadvantages. Led by its forward-minded Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Kolkata was declared as one of the most IT friendly destinations within India. And IT policies were reconstructed to compliment the declaration.

In the last two years, the city has witnessed its top five IT hardware distributors spreading their wings across eastern India, and now they are set to take on the rest of the Indian market.

The Forerunners
It was more than a decade ago when Kolkata-based Jupiter International launched Frontech. Today, it has successfully gained market recognition across the country as a renowned optical media, PC components, and accessory manufacturer.

Born in 1992, Jupiter has grown to become a leading distribution company from eastern India and has established Frontech as a dependable and preferred brand among IT peripheral, optical media users, and its channel partners. To fuel the growth of the company, Jupiter has set up its own manufacturing facility in Baddi. The plant has been set up in technical collaboration with Germany-based Singulus Technologies. The equipment and technology supplied by Singulus enabled the company to produce various models of optical media, matching world standards at Indian prices. The customer-centric approach of its MD, Alok Garodia has been rewarding, as it stuck to the basicoffering good quality products at an attractive price backed by a strong after sales support system. Simultaneously, Jupiter has strengthened its distribution business by adding up brands and products like, Samsung Pleomax, Foxcon, etc. The company is estimated to have a turnover of around Rs 200 crore in 2007-08.

The next biggie in the league is Supertron Electronics. Lead by the dynamic VK Bhandari, SEL has emerged as a powerhouse over a span of three years. Established in 1993, the company launched its own brand Supercomp in 2006. A well-planned marketing and branding strategy combined with an improved and enhanced product line, competitive pricing and a strong support network helped the company establish Supercomp as a popular PC components and accessories brand across India within a short span. As per Bhandari, the wide product mix that Supercomp offersranging from components, accessories, UPS, Mp3 and other USB devices, and surveillance productsand its focused and professional business approach has worked in favor to help the company achieve targets. The company has also initiated various new product verticals like storage, surveillance and networking and has partnered with leading brands like Seagate, Acer, Intel, Transcend and recently IBM, to distribute their products nationally.

As Bhandari rightly points out, Supercomp was a challenge for SEL and the company was determined to establish the brand nationally. It marketed the Supercomp product line with due aggression all across while maintaining the quality of the products and reinforced its support structure all over India.

However, he also added that being headquartered in Kolkata has always been a challenge for the company in its national expansion planning. East being a small market, our scope is limited since the addressable market is low compared to North, South or West markets. Also East is not a vendor-driven market, so naturally the growth has been slow. Therefore, it has been a tough task for us to expand the way we have all over India, but it is the experience which is extremely rewarding, he says. Supertron has achieved a turnover of Rs 484 crore for FY 2007-08.

The Followers
It was about a couple of years back when Kolkata-based Balaji Solutions had launched its own brand Foxin in the east Indian market. And within a short span of time the company claims to have captured a handsome market share in the said region. The Foxin range of products include components, accessories, UPS and various USB devices, RAM, etc. According to Rajendra Seksaria, director, Balaji Solutions, The idea behind the launch of Foxin was to make the bottomline of the company strong and elevate it from being just a box pusher to a brand promoter.

Not far behind, Technocrat Infotech, the most promising distributor in todays date from the east, launched its own brand, Bitec in mid-2006. In the last two years, Bitec has been doing well in eastern India. Thanks to its well-laid and strong channel network across the region, Technocrat succeeded to market Bitec products with great penetration across the east. The task was not very tough since we maintain excellent relationship with our channel partners, albeit it required a well-planned launch, product positioning and proper supply chain management backed by quality and service support, says Asif Khan, director Technocrat.

Bitec started its journey with a single product category, ie, UPS. Keeping its strategy simple, Technocrat identified a product that has a good demand in the market. Once the brand was successful in creating its own identity in the market, Technocrat went on to add more product ranges for Bitec and increased its reach and sales.

The Late Entrants
The top five distributors from the Eastincluding Jalan Infotech and Lalani Infotechsurprisingly, were the last entrants onto the brand bandwagon. While Lalani launched Kanry last year, Jalan launched Leo early 2008.

So far, Kanry has performed well and has created its own demand. It has launched a wide range of PC and office automation products. Recently, Kanry introduced consumables for copiers, Mp4 players, headphones, and CRT monitors to be followed later by TFT and LCD displays. As per KL Lalani, chairman Lalani Infotech, by next March Kanry will have over fifty product ranges to choose from for its channel and users. On the other hand, Leo started with UPS since this product line caters to a larger market and has great demand. It is our dream project. Having established our self to be counted among the leading regional distributors in the east, its time for us to achieve the next level of growth, says Arun Jalan, director, Jalan Infotech.

Expanding Horizons
It seems to be a common strategy for all the above-mentioned players. As they plan to expand their operational horizon, the companies complemented the move by launching their own brands which is a way to earn good profits in times of thinning margins.

Jupiter has its branch and distribution offices at twenty-four major locations in India including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Raipur, While Supertron currently has 25 branches and channel strength of around 3,500 across the country which includes places like Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Jaipur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Patna, Siliguri, Chennai, Chandigarh, Cochin, etc.

After setting their feet all across the east, Jalan, Lalani, Technocrat, and Balaji are ready with their national expansion policies. Balaji has already started its operation in the north and is keen to capture the market by the end of this year. The year is important for Technocrat since it is planning to expand its operation beyond the east. But as has been its strategy from the beginning, before any new plan the company takes a holistic approach to strengthen the infrastructure in order to sustain the new development.

Technocrat has built its expansion strategy in accordance with the current market scenario. Today, maximum growth is coming from upcountry locations across the country. There for taking a practical approach, the smarter way is to target these markets explains Khan. As per Khan, before settling to start off the journey, a clear mapping is desirable for systematic expansion. The company plans to enter northern markets through Bihar where it is already present, and start operating in Uttar Pradesh and gradually move up the ladder to spread its reach across the north. Similarly, through Orissa and Chhattisgarh, Technocrat plans to gradually move toward central and southern Indian markets.

However, keeping the expenses in mind, the company has decided to appoint CNF agents in key locations in south and north, and appoint its own sales and service staffs.

Jalan already has a branch in Mumbai although it is not too focused in the west at the moment. Meanwhile, Lalani has recently opened branches in Patna and Raipur. The company plans to launch Kanry in south India next, and open a branch in Chennai.

While Supertron has already implemented ERP, Jalan, Technocrat, and Lalani are in the process of implementing ERP, which will further enable these companies to ensure a smooth control over their business activities.

Piyali Guha
piyalig@cybermedia.co.in

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