13. INGRAM MICRO: Broadening Spheres

FOR Ingram Micro, fiscal 2000-01 was eventful, it was growth-oriented and one of broadening spheres. In the final tally, revenues were clocked in at estimated figure of Rs 930 crore, a growth of nearly 92% over the previous year’s Rs 486 crore. Heady though it was, the growth rate was still a far cry from the 202% achieved in the previous year. Nevertheless, the company finally came into its own, joining the other big guns of IT distribution in India–Tech Pacific and Redington. The fiscal also saw the formal bowing out of Prasad Mamidanna from the day-to-day management of Ingram Micro. Without doubt, Mamidanna played a very key role in establishing the company in India as a distributor with muscle. Along the way came a number of additions to the already bulging portfolio of vendors the company represents– IBM, Linksys, Mro-Tek, Sun and TVSE joined Ingram Micro’s bandwagon.

Earlier, Ingram Micro’s focus was on the components business, where it played a major role in establishing Quantum (now Maxtor) as a major player for hard disk drives. However, the thrust of the company last year was primarily on building the networking and enterprise solutions businesses. And the results were equally good from these two divisions, with Sun playing a major role.

Another big achievement was the rollout of its own brand of computer components in an effort to cater to growing demand from the assembler segment. Marketed under the brand name of Vesta, these components included motherboards, CD-ROM drives, keyboards, mouse, speakers and cabinets. Vesta leveraged on the strong experience and comprehensive supplier relationships Ingram has in Taiwan. These components, directly imported from Taiwan, were from the best-of-breed manufacturers and leading OEM suppliers for major MNC brands.

The assembler segment constitutes about 60% of India’s total PC market. Ingram’s strategy is now to push Vesta through its existing channel partners. The idea behind Vesta was to offer channel partners quality products and improved margins.



The focus areas for the next fiscal are to strengthen the Vesta brand, establish the software business, and further increase the network. In the process, it hopes to grow better than the industry average–this could see Ingram Micro emerging as a Rs 1,500-crore company at the end of the ongoing fiscal. And hand in hand, the employee count should rise to 400.