March Towards Glory

We have reasons to believe the answer's yes! Let's look at some facts.
Kolkata today has five PC brands among the 25-30 PC brands in the country. These
include Amar PC, ISyn, Waves, Chirag, and Vintron after Supertron Electronic
acquired the exclusive rights to market and manufacture the Vintron range of
PCs.

Been There, Done That

Kolkata-based Supertron Electronics has been in the game for a long time.
One of the largest distributors from the region, Supertron launched its own
brand of PCs under the brand name SuperComp way back in 1997. MK Bhandari, the
director of Supertron, has been in the distribution game since 1993. Branded PCs
is no rocket science, of course. Bhandari was quick to realize potential and the
requirement of the branded PC market. Says Bhandari, “The most important part
of manufacturing branded PCs, is to source the key components.” Brand
SuperComp could not make the kind of impact in the PC market that Bhandari would
have liked. After Supertron acquired the Vintron range of PCs in 2004, it
withdrew SuperComp PCs from the market and currently, distributes and markets PC
components under the SuperComp umbrella.

Vintron had an existing market and was a far more recognized brand. Says
Bhandari, “We were able to access a readymade market post acquisition.” With
a turnover of Rs 145 crore, Supertron now plans to dig into deeper pockets in
the North and West, where the Vintron brand has been fairing well.    

The Big Daddy in Kolkata

Xenitis remains the biggest of them all as a brand. Though the
single-largest player, in terms of size, market dominance, and branding from the
East, Xenitis is more than just another regional player today. With Mera PC and
Aamchi PC, Xenitis is aggressively charting a national presence for itself.

Xenitis Infotech stormed into the branded PC market with its sub-10K Amar PC
brand and the rest is history. Historically, Xenitis sold PCs under a brand
called Indus Computers, which was almost non-existent in the local market in
terms of identity.

Today, Xenitis Infotech's contribution to the group's revenue is by far
the largest.

While Xenitis prefers to be identified as a national player today, as far as
its infotech business goes, the company has also launched its component
manufacturing facility at Sugandha in the Hoogly District of West Bengal. This
production facility will manufacture computer cases, keyboard, mouse, power
supply, speakers, and home theatres. Xenitis plans to start monitor
manufacturing very soon. Says Tathagata Dutta, MD, Xenitis, “We see huge
opportunity in fundamental manufacturing for Xenitis and are looking to be a
matured OEM supplier.” Although Xenitis is unwilling to put a number to the
size of the opportunity, it is easier to gauge the opportunity from what Dutta
has to say, “In component manufacturing, we would like to be what Infosys is
today in software services.”

A Force to Reckon With

ISyn is today one of the other significant PC brands from Kolkata. After
being in the regional market for over a year now, Milon Chakraborty, MD, SynTech
Informatics, is now planning to take the ISyn brand to the national level.
SynTech's experience with branded PCs started in five years back when it was
the integrating partner for Samsung PCs. Says Dilip Banerjee, director,
Marketing, SynTech, “At that time, Samsung had 18% of the market share in the
East after HCL, which was the leading brand in this part of the region.” After
Samsung pulled out of the market, SynTech partnered with leading brands such as
IBM, HCL, and HP.

The Samsung association was a learning experience for Chakraborty and team.
The withdrawal of the Samsung brand created a huge void at the entry level and
that is an opportunity that SynTech discovered. Says Milon Chakravorty, “We
work with very sensitive customers and have built a relationship over the years
in the lines of the experience we gathered from selling Samsung PCs.”

Today, SynTech sells around 1000-1200 PCs a month in the East. SynTech is
also a selected partner in the East for the government assisted PC program
Gyandeep and Gyanbriddhi in association with Microsoft and Intel. Under these
programs, students PCs and people's PC targeted towards students and
government employees at special prices would be made available. While the
full-fledged launch of the scheme is awaited, SynTech sees huge opportunity in
the scheme for itself. A new production plant has come up at Aamtola in Kolkata,
where the current production capacity is around 5,000 PCs a month. The capacity
is likely to go up to 10,000 a month by the end of this year. SynTech is also
looking to redefine service with the help of embedded applications that will
solve problems by themselves. SynTech is targeting corporates starting December
this year. Certain certifications required to tap the corporate sector is being
awaited currently.   

Also There

Chirag is the newest entrant from Kolkata region in the branded PC space.
Interestingly, the biggest impact Chirag has made, is to splash Kolkata with
hoardings. So the name has definitely made significant impact in terms of brand
awareness. Incidentally, Chirag is an offshoot of RP Communications that is in
the business of billboards. Says a competitor, who was unwilling to be named,
“It's the billboard business that allows Chirag the luxury of
advertising.” The fundamentals appear fairly simple: Every time there is no
booking for an RP Communications billboard, a Chirag hoarding fills up the empty
space and the Kolkata skyline as well. Chirag has adopted a sales strategy
fairly untested as far as the industry is concerned. Unlike PC vendors, who
prefer to take the channel route to distribution and sales, Chirag has gone for
a complete retail sales strategy where Chirag PCs are being sold at exclusive
Chirag outlets.

Waves, another small-time brand in the PC space from Kolkata, is largely
focused towards the SMB space. In the PC business for the last eight years, SK
Loharoka, the CEO of Waves sees more and more customers in the SOHO and SMB
segment, shifting to branded PCs in the recent times, something that explains
the launch of Waves PCs last year.

The Kolkata Connection

The local PC industry has been the hotseat for newer regional brands in the
last two years. While Supertron and Waves have been around for close to a
decade, it is only in the last two years that both have looked at a new strategy
in the branded PC market-Supertron's acquisition of the Vintron range of PCs
in 2004 and Waves rebranded itself last year with a more focused strategy. Last
year also saw the launch of the ISyn brand of PCs and Chirag. And, you can't
miss Xenitis, of course.

The emergence of five branded PC players in the last two years is a record of
sorts. So what's fuelling the trend? One, the need to exist in the market.
Says Chakraborty, “You need a brand to survive in the market. Otherwise,
chances are that an MNC brand will completely wipe you out.” That's one part
of the story. Loharoka sees a growing preference among customers towards branded
PCs. Typically, the accountability of an assembler is far lower as compared to a
vendor in the branded space and after-sales service becomes a critical issue.

Bhandari has a different take. “Entrepreneurship is growing in the State
and there is a strong support from the government.” That there is strong
political backing for the likes of Xenitis and SynTech, is a known fact in the
industry circles of the region. The overall opportunity in terms of what the IT
industry in the State has to offer has also grown significantly. In addition the
growth in the SMB segment and the enterprise is also growing by leaps and
bounds. There is huge corporate opportunity for IT, ITeS, telecom, and
infrastructure companies. Bhandari also sees a sharp rise in indirect sales.

The Kolkata PC story is on a great high. The PC industry is clocking a growth
of 35% y-o-y according to IDC reports. Sums up Loharoka, “It's a huge
market, both at the regional and the national level. There's something for
everyone.”

Bhaswati Chakravorty

bhaswatic@cybermedia.co.in