14. Samsung India (IT & Telecom): Spirited Moves

THE company celebrated its first full financial year as a wholly owned subsidiary–it had earlier functioned as a liaison office of the parent company in South Korea–by posting a growth of 76% and clocking revenues of Rs 881 crore. A global repositioning exercise saw this computer peripherals major graduate to a computer essentials company. And the change in name (earlier Samsung Electronics India) was aimed at accommodating telecom products as another line of business.

The company continued to dominate the color monitor segment, mopping up over a third of the market and shipping a total of 718,000 units. The 15-inch monitors cornered the maximum share followed by 17- and 14-inch units. Samsung aims to expanding the market for 17-inch models by narrowing the price gap with 15-inch monitors. The much-awaited decision to set up a color monitor plant in Noida also saw the light of the day. The facility is expected to become operational by the time this issue is out and will be rolling out one million pieces per year in the first phase. The production capacity will go up to 2.5 million units per year in the second phase, the time frame for which is yet to be decided.

Samsung beefed up its dealer network to 6,000 from 2,000 in 1999-00, and plans to leverage this to give its laser printer sales a big lift-up. The aim: No 2 position in the product space, a growth of above 200% and a volume of 17,000, by December end. And toward that end, activities were perked up in Q4 of FY 2000–of the total 5,500 units sold during the fiscal, 2,200 were shipped in Q4 alone. The strategy is to launch a wide range of printers and plug in all gaps in the LME and government demand segments. The company also added two new channel partners, Ingram Micro and Salora International, for its printer business.

On the HDD front, the fiscal brought in a bonus. Capitalizing on Seagate’s inability to meet demand during the peak OND season, the company upped its marketshare to 32% this fiscal from 20% the previous year (company sources). Samsung also emerged stronger in the ODD segment, selling 571,000 units worth Rs 103.5

crore.

Samsung hopes to leverage its channel community strength to cross Rs 1,320 crore this year. With its efficient and outsourced operations, that should help Samsung retain its staggering productivity of nearly Rs 50 crore per employee.