Advertisment

Get, Set, Grow

author-image
DQI Bureau
New Update

The Rs 1,500-crore UPS market is dominated at the national level by several

MNCs. But local players in all the regions too play a major role. Thus, it comes

as no surprise that the Eastern region has six local contenders. These include

Leonics, AVO, Epoch and Voltas companies that have occupied a good amount of

market share in the Eastern region. However, companies like Tata Liebert (now

renamed as Emerson Network Power), APC, Microtek and TVSE have built up their

brand image over a period of time and local players have to think of ways and

means to grab marketshare from these big-timers.

Advertisment

With

the power situation showing no improvement in the Eastern region, UPS vendors

are looking forward to selling an UPS with every PC.

Players from the East who have a presence in the national market include HiTA

and Frontech. Frontech is only a recent entrant but has already established its

presence. Launched in August 2001, the product is available with dealers across

the nation. "The response to our product has been very good and we see an

enormous potential in the market," says Hirdejit Singh, GM, Jupiter

Infotech. According to Singh, the opportunity is enormous because every PC buyer

now complements the purchase with a UPS. The UPS market is moving forward with

increasing PC sales. The average ratio between the sale of a PC and an UPS which

used to be 5:1, is in the process of changing. Local players have an advantage

over national players because they are in a position to price their products

attractively. They also have a good distribution network. For instance, players

like AVO and Voltas have increased their clientele because their products are

available at half the prices compared to Emerson Network or APC.

National ambition



"We want to project HiTA as a national brand in the coming years and will
emerge as a serious contender in the 10KV+ market. In the next two years, we

intend to capture substantial market share and reach the A-category among

UPS,"says Arun Ghosh, MD, Digital Data Systems. Switching Electronics has

been flooding the market with its Leonics-AVO, an ISO 9002 UPS. As MD Anup

Agarwal says, "Future plans include the setting up of more service centers

with qualified engineers in different towns and cities across the country."

Advertisment

UPSs for rugged conditions



Epoch, another local player in Kolkata, is gaining ground. Epoch, an ISO

9001 company, is engaged in manufacturing on-line and line-interactive UPSs and

has a turnover of more than Rs 6 crore. "Our products can function in

rugged conditions. On one hand, they can work in villages in the interior of the

country and on the other, in the tea gardens of Assam. We have a strong

marketing team interacting closely with the customers and is backed by a strong

after-sales support network," says C Kundu, MD, Epoch.

Epoch has plans to explore the non-conventional energy market and intends to

manufacture Power Factor Corrected (PFC) Chargers to increase the efficiency of

the UPS Systems. In the Eastern home segment, APC is most widely used in spite

of its high price. According to Supreme Infotech, a reseller of computer

hardware and peripherals, APC is popular because of its brand name and quality.

So APC, Tata Libert, Micro-tek and TVS are still the winners as far as assurance

and brand image is concerned and they occupy 50% of the market. "At the

point when pricing becomes crucial, local brands like AVO and Voltas become

favorable buying options," says PK Kadriwal, GM, Oscar. For TVS, the

Eastern market is very promising sand has a growth target set at 20-25% in the

next fiscal. "The market in the north-east is untapped and we are gearing

up to make a strong presence there. We already have 100 dealers and 50 service

centers there," says AK Barua, Regional Head, TVS Electronics.

High import duty



One of the threats faced by local UPS manufacturers comes from the high

import duty that they have to pay for components which are not available

locally. Market players hope that the budget for 2002-03 will provide some

succor in this respect. The other threat comes from dumping by countries like

Taiwan and China.

RADHIKA BHUYAN/CNS in Kolkata

Advertisment