LG appoints Rashi and Redington for its monitors

IT division

of href="https://www.dqweek.com/lg-launches-b2b-vertical-solutions">LG

India, has recently announced changes in its 10-year-old

existing regional distribution model. In addition to this, the

company has roped in 2 heavyweight distributors- href="https://www.dqweek.com/another-feather-in-rashi-peripherals-cap-2">Rashi

Peripherals

and Redington as authorized wholesale distributors (AWD) for its

range of monitors. The rationale behind this move is to have a strong

presence in the retail channel, stabilize the market operating

price,and increase

penetration in upcountry markets.

Moreover, LG

has rolled out a month long 15-city roadshow for showcasing its

monitors. While

informing about the role of Rashi and Redington, Sanjoy Bhattacharya,

product group marketing head IT, LG India said, “The reason for

this move is to position our range of monitors at maximum retail

points. As per our internal assessment, consumers prefer to buy

monitors off-the-shelf rather than from channel partners. However,

our regional distributors are holding a major pie of our business,

but largely they cater to the white box assemblers or system

integrators.”

LG has

strategically positioned the two of them. Rashi has been exclusively

appointed for the futuristic and premium range of monitors, which the

company launched recently including 3D series, slim series and

instant panel monitors across India. Redington who has been

associated with LG has been given 9 new markets-Mumbai, Nagpur,

Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, North

Bengal and Guwahati. Of these, Redington will be exclusive in Mumbai,

Jharkhand and North Bengal. Currently, LG has more than 20 existing

range of monitors, and in the next quarter it will add 10 new models

to its kitty. As per the new changes, Redington will be distributing

range of 13 monitors which are more of entry level LED monitors and

the rest 7 will be distributed by Rashi. Bhattacharya

also asserted that the new distribution changes will not minimize or

hamper the role of our regional distributors (RDs). We will ensure

that both the channels grow together. The company is also

consolidating the size of its RDs. Presently LG has 200 RDs in India.

“This consolidation is happening as a result of inactive role of

RDs in some pockets. Hence, we are trying to eliminate them from the

system. So far we have identified 30 such RDs who are not showing

much interest in selling our monitors. In addition to that, for the

support of active RDs, we have added 150 system assembler developer

officers mainly in tier-3 and 4 cities

and towns,” Bhattacharya said. Talking about other IT product line

like optical drives and laptops, Bhattacharya said, “Our optical

drive business will continue to be driven by RDs. However, in the

next quarter we are re-launching our laptop business, which we

stopped in 2009.”

“For LG,

monitor is a big category and we will keep adding new innovative

range of monitors. In the month of October, we will introduce

Internet monitor and touch screen-based all-in-one PC and many more,”

Bhattacharya concluded.