Vikas Gupta:- How are you aligning your channel roadmap to target new customer segment?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- A unique feature of our marketing initiatives has been our upcountry focus. We have mapped districts for each state and we have targeted to do business and have our presence in each potential district rather than focus on metro cities where demand is saturating. Our upcountry focus fits in very well with our overarching mission of bringing the best IT products of the world to an underpenetrated India and raising standards and enhancing national efficiency.
Vikas Gupta:- What is your channel policy in India? What kind of channel expansion are you looking for in the near future?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- Supertron has leveraged innovation to create a relationship-driven business model that enhances the short-term and long-term interest of our channels, we are interacting with the partners day to day basis and educating them for their business
As already replied that we are focusing smaller towns of each states and to penetrate these areas we have opened satellite branches In all regions.
Vikas Gupta:- What is your growth strategy here? What are the engines of growth for Supetron in India?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- We attribute our growth in the last three years mainly to Dell, Acer and Seagate business and also to our new tie ups with Toshiba for their Laptops we have added to our over -all revenue. For certain businesses, we could convince our vendors for Exclusivity across the country and we have worked closely with the Vendor and the Channel in driving those businesses from scratch to the respectable volumes which has helped us tremendously in our growth. The expand strategy both in terms of product portfolio and geographical reach has been a major revenue driver.
Vikas Gupta:- What trends do you see in distribution and how would you adapt to these trends?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- Distribution business is going through a crucial phase due to multiple factors major being the Rupee devaluation and impact of Online marketing. Due to wide fluctuation in Rupee the operating prices kept on fluctuating resulting in low off takes by partners and higher inventory with distributors. Channel was also impacted due to aggressive pricing offered by Online stores due to festival offers. The only key to success in distribution business is to target Tear 2 and Tear 3 cities and consolidate existing business. To drive distribution business in such turbulent time we have taken steps to increase our footprints more and more on small towns and increase the channel breadth rather than relying more on major cities .
Vikas Gupta:- What kind of growth do you expect this year?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- IT Industry is poised to growth at the rate of 10 to 12% in coming years as still the penetration percentage in India for computers is much low as compared to other developing or developed nations. We are looking at 15-18% + growth year to year in next two years. We will be adding some more Brands in our Portfolio of distribution. We are creating Value Vertical in the organisation to address the SI’s segment mainly with Networking Solutions, Servers, Storage etc for further growth.
Vikas Gupta:- What are the challenges for you?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- Global economic slowdown is the reasons to downturn trends in the IT industry and G.D.P. growth as well. Dollar strength and a depreciating rupee is the biggest challenge to the distribution business along with the inventory and bad debt.
Vikas Gupta:- Are there any plans by the Supertron to get in to expansion mode by entering in to any tie up or partnership?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- The Company has consistently followed the policy of expanding its product portfolio and reinforce its existing vendor alliances with the addition of more globally –respected partners. It is our conviction that the increase of credible partners does not just increase our product offering; it also enables us to amortize our distribution cost across a number of products that, in turn, enhances our channel engagement and operating margins. The Company has strengthened its position as the fifth largest IT product distribution company.
Vikas Gupta:- How is the company positioned currently and what is your strategic roadmap for the year ahead?
Mr. V. K. Bhandari:- Today Supertron ranks among the top 7th IT Distributors of India and ranked 62nd position of top 100 IT companies in India. Our goal is to establish our organization at the forefront as the most dependable, focused in bottomline products with the value addition in the product range. Supertron would be a value-added distributor in the country with strong logistics and strong pan-India presence.
We strive to be a most valuable partner both to the vendor and the channel partners and create value at all levels.
