Jaipur’s Computer Supermart establishes company in China

One of Jaipur’s leading channel partner, Computer Supermart, has established a company in China. Called Mass Hi-Tech, it was set up six months back and operates out of Shenzhen. It is now looking for regional distributors in India and also plans to set up service centers in all the major Indian cities by 2004.

“We are not looking at natio-nal distributors as they are more aggressive in only some areas, therefore, our target is to do business with regional distributors so that we can maximize our market share,” informed Rupesh Kedia, Dire-ctor, Mass Hi-Tech.

Mass Hi-Tech has its factory in Jaipur by the name of Mass Peripherals Pvt Ltd and owns the brand ‘Mass’, which is also a certified factory, and it is for this that the company is looking for the regional distis. Right now, it wants regional distis for its motherboards, memories, mobile data cables, mobile batteries, modern USB peripherals etc.

“We started the company in China with the same name with the objective to source good products and pre-check the imports, so as to establish the brand in China,” he pointed out.

Kedia further added, “In fact, we started China operations last year, but due to SARS in the region the project got delayed for more than six months. It was in the month of June, this year, that we were able to start the business commercially.”

As far as the criteria in a regional disti is concerned, Kedia said, “The disti should have a good network of dealers, should have good past record for after sales handling (we are very keen on providing good after sales support to our customers, so this is most important criteria for us, approx 50 percent weightage we will give to this point), good financial capability and ability to handle new products are the major criteria for

distis.”

When asked about the diffe-rences between the Chinese and the Indian market, he replied, “China is a manufa-cturing market whereas India is a consuming market. In India, supply is more than demand, whereas in China such a situation does not exist.

Also because china is the biggest market for computer products now, we see only growth here.”

As far as the targets are concerned, Kedia informed, “Targets are not yet set. Once the channel is in place, only then can we set the targets.”

The company has a long list of plans up its sleeves. “By 2004 we want to set up the entire regional distribution channel and our own service centers in all the major cities of India. Then in 2005, we have plans to expand our operations in the Australian market. We also want to set up four regional offices in India for better co-ordination between the distis, service centers and external affairs,” informed

Kedia.

By the year 2006, he wants to set up a manufacturing unit for the products, which he is currently sourcing from China, in India.

And in 2007, he plans to shift total sourcing from China, to own manufacturing in India.

Karma Negi