Puneet Gupta, Head India & SAARC, STK Accessories Interacts With IT Voice

As Country Head, Puneet Gupta defines the roadmap for all innovations and technology at STK. He is responsible for the strategy & managing operations across the company’s India and SAARC with an aim for STK to be the leading mobile accessory suppliers and accessory solution providers.

Prior to joining STK Accessories, Mr Puneet Gupta was working with reputed companies in telecom industries including The Mobile Store Ltd, Luminous/Livguard Accessories, Eureka Forbes and Heinz.

Puneet brings over a rich experience of close to two decades in sales. Mr. Gupta brings with him extensive knowledge of the industry and is keen on giving new dimensions to the mobile accessories industry in the country.

Vikas Gupta: What will be your growth strategy in India for this financial year?

Puneet Gupta : 2015 -16 has been a year of accelerated growth story for STK Accessories in India. We introduced a lot of innovative products in Indian market with newer technologies. For this financial year we have similar plans and primarily we are focussing on new range of accessories and ‘Connected Products’ which will differentiate us. We are coming up with a whole new range of innovative accessories this year to further grow our share in the Indian Accessory market.

Vikas Gupta: What have been the key performance highlights for STK in 2015?

Puneet Gupta : We have partnered with Redington India Limited (National Distributor) and started doing great in General Trade across India. We have launched our products in 35 cities across India and now we are targeting for100 more cities in 2016.

2015 was a successful year for STK in India as we won 2 awards in Mobility Awards night “The Fastest growing accessory brand” and “Eye candy product of the year”, what makes us better is the use of new technologies and unique design. Apart from this, we also participated in Consumer Electronics Imaging Fair (Mumbai) which is the world’s third largest electronic Imaging show, where we received an overwhelming response for Explorer camera which is our under water sports camera that comes with WiFi connectivity and other unique features.

Vikas Gupta: What kind of verticals are you targeting for your products within India?

Puneet Gupta: Dedicated in our approach, this year we are looking for General Trade distributors across India, a few selected Modern Trade partners and a few selected online portals to complete the business association in India. We also looking forward, to tie up with a few IT partners to explore that channel as well.

Vikas Gupta :  What are the new challenges that you face in relation to the Indian market? In terms of line of products, what are the key focus areas for the company?

Puneet Gupta : Only challenge that we majorly face is the grey market products which are easily available and are sold at unethical prices, this is really hampering the whole market and posing a danger to the consumer due to quality issues. We really need to educate the users that buying fake or low quality products does not help them to save money but they are booking a big loss since these fake accessories can spoil their parent devices and potentially harm them.

Vikas Gupta : Currently, which product segments of STK are doing well in the market and which you are focusing for the current quarter?

Puneet Gupta: Currently power segment is the segment we have done really well like Power banks, Chargers and MFI cables. Our other focus area is the active sports range which is totally water proof, Dust proof, Break proof, IP67 material for BT speakers, Underwater Camera, Power bank as well.

Vikas Gupta: What is your outlook for the overall IT market? What are you channel plans for 2016?

Puneet Gupta: With the country getting active on the global trading platform, we expect this year to offer more growth opportunities. For channel plans, we have already started with a few in Bangalore and Kolkata and are exploring more IT channel partners as they are also keen explore new range of accessories and I am sure with the new and innovative range, we can take a major share of that segment in 2016 as well as in coming years