Finally Supertron sets foot in Jammu

Targeting to increase its footprint further in north India, Supertron Electronics (SEL) has recently opened a branch in the city of Jammu with an objective to cater to an odd base of 60 channel partners directly feeding the base with its entire range of distributable products.

"Previously, we were catering to the channel partners in Jammu through our branches in Delhi and Ludhiana and they had to incur CST. The billings in Jammu, however, were irregular but with the new branch in place, we will be able to cater to the partner base directly at ease" said V.K. Bhandari, direcor, SEL.

With the new inauguration in place, SEL, however, hasn't set any considerable revenue target and is expecting to have billing of atleast Rs.1 crore from the Jammu branch.

"It is too early to set any substantial amount as a revenue target now and the priority will be over increasing the channel base and arrange for regular supplies. By the end of this CY, we hope to have around 100 channel partners in the state (Jammu and Kashmir)", said Vibhor Agarwal, director - sales and marketing, SEL.

Although the distributor has inaugurated the branch office with the objective to cater to the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, SEL will be treading carefully for Srinagar.

"Everybody is aware that there are some issues with Srinagar and all distributors have to be extra careful there. We are open to billing in the capital of J&K, but its not a priority at the moment", Agarwal added.

According to Agarwal, under the present scenario, SEL will be looking at entire Jammu and southern Kashmir as a focus area.

In the recently held Tech Caravan in Srinangar on September 7, channel partners from Srinagar complained of the high-handedness and alleged "stepmother attitude by some of the leading national distributors of the country". Unlike Jammu partners, some distributors operating in the capital city do accept the post dated cheques from the Kashmir partners and billing is mostly cash-oriented for Srinagar.

Supertron is the national distributor for a large number of global players and Dell, Acer and Seagate featuring as the maximum revenue contributors.

"We will be focusing on the prime brands for Jammu branch, but at the same time, we are equally aggressive over all our brands", Agarwal concluded.