With retail being the flavor of the season, here is yet
another company taking big steps on retail front. Cochin-based Focus Computers,
a leading retailer in Kerala, is planning to open 10 mini-retail stores across
the state, this year. Pathanamthitta, Thodupuzha, Malappuram, Kunnakulam,
Thiruvela, Thalachery, Muvatupuzha, Chertala, Kayankulam and Kollam are the 10
towns identified by Focus for this program. “All these retail stores would be
built with an area of about 200 square feet and our objective is to be close to
the market. Any end-customer (buyer) in Kerala should reach us within one hour
of travel from their hometown. Focus already has 10 large retail showrooms in
Kerala and the new mini-retail stores concept would further boost our
business,” said Santosh Pillai, Business Manager, Focus.
The company is betting big on the retail growth in the
country and according to Pillai, “Retail is redefining the customers' buying
experience and today people want to touch and feel the product, before they buy.
Focus' long business experience and network of retail outlets in automobile
business, help the company to understand the pulse of the IT retail market too.
In fact, we are borrowing few success stories from autoÂmobile business and
impleÂmenting it in IT.”
Focus is offering wide range of products from several
leading brands in their retail stores. “We are partner for HP, IBM, Acer, HCL,
Lenova, Intel, AMD and APC, among others. We also have our own brand called X-Stam
in the market. Focus is a leading PC reseller in Kerala and, we sell about 425
machines a month,” claimed Pillai. The company is a key partÂner for Acer
(PCs) and brings in around 40 percent of business for them in Kerala.
“Acer's tremendous support helps us keep going strong in the market.”
Now, the company is reafÂfirming its relationship with
Compaq (HP) and planÂning to take it in a big way in the marÂket. “So far,
we were selling around 40 Compaq machines a month. But, now, with renewed focus,
we would take it up to 100 machines per month to become the Presario Top Partner
in Kerala,” he affirmed.
Focus is also into selling assembled PCs in the market. It
also promotes branded laptops. “Nearly 80 percent of our revenue comes from PC
business, while periÂpherals contribute only 10 percent. The compoÂnents
business is a small fragment with only two percent and the remaining eight
percent comes from service,” detailed Pillai.
Overall, the company's major focus is only on home users,
who account for nearly 85 percent of the total turnover. Recently, it has formed
a dedicated team for corporate sales and service.
The company has registered a turnover of Rs 15.1 crore for
this fiscal.
S Gopikrishna Chennai, April 5