Eagle's laptop aftermarket biz grows by Rs 60 lakh

Bengaluru: Even though the IT business has taken a hit with the meltdown, Eagle Technologies claimed that its laptop aftermarket has grown by Rs 60 lakh in India. Their network spans 120 cities across India, with 110 distributors called Exilient Business Partner (EBP) and 400 resellers called Exilient Authorized Reseller (EAR). The company is planning to rope in more partners by holding sales meet in 32 cities nationwide.

Eagle intends to have 200 business resellers and 1,000 authorized resellers in their fold. In their recently held event at Century Club in Bengaluru, 32 dealers have shown interest in Exilient (Eagle's own battery and adapter brand).

Subir Sangal, CEO, Eagle Technologies, while speaking about the opportunities in e-governance and SMB sector said, “The market for aftermarket products is huge. We cater to almost the entire country and have presence across India. Unlike in the desktop market, where there is little scope for upgradation after the initial sale, a laptop customer may end up spending even more than his initial purchase on aftermarket products.”

According to Sangal, products which are in demand in aftermarket space are battery, adapter, back-pack, LCD screen, keyboard, optical drive, etc. Amongst these, battery has been in high demand, since the Lithium-Ion battery in a laptop runs out after 300-500 charge-discharge cycles. Thus, a laptop battery has a lifespan of less than 1.5 years. So he plans to offer high-quality battery with a better lifespan, adapter, LCD screen and keyboard with one-year warranty and a nation-wide sales and service network.

Atha Ulla Khan, Regional Manager, Eagle Technologies said, “Adapters, while not a consumable like batteries, also fail very often due to power fluctuations. LCDs have to be replaced because of breakage and keyboards are susceptible to damage on account of spillage, clogging of hair, wearing out of key tops, etc. Including all these, the total laptop aftermarket is estimated to be in excess of Rs 2,500 crore per annum.”

In the meantime, Eagle has already partnered with Sogo Computers in Bengaluru, Compage in Hyderabad, Adinath Computers in Chennai, Indicom Systems in Trivandrum and Sumi Sales in Madurai.
Madan Rao, Product Manager, Sogo Computer stated, “We have been associated with Eagle for almost four months now. Though their after-sales support is good, we want them to improve their delivery of stock.”

Rajesh S, Office Manager, Indicom Systems commented, “Eagle has been supplying IT products to us for seven months. But we have complaints about one thing. They almost take a week to deliver stocks. Otherwise we are happy with them.”
Eagle is also planning to expand its mobile device segment with the introduction of new category of products such as e-readers, e-books, Internet surfing devices and SmartPhone.