No association for Akola dealers

Located in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Akola is about 600 km east of the capital city-Mumbai and 250 km west of Nagpur. Having an area of about 5,431 sq kms Akola is the third largest city in Vidarbha region. The city is bordered on the north and east by Amravati district, on the south by Washim district, and on the west by Buldhana district. Akola is also known as the Cotton City, as it is the largest cotton-producing district in India. The city is also famous for its pulses, oil, and textile mills.

Akola has three prominent industrial zones on the outskirts of the city. Cotton and Jowar are the predominant crops grown in the district. Oil and pulses mills are also rampant. The economy is mostly agriculture based. By taking a look at the information technology sector of the city one can find that the region is not doing well in that segment. Gajesh Agarwal, CEO of Golden System said that the market has been slow since the past few months. Festive season also didn't help in churning good revenues for the partners. Arun Padmawar, CEO, Sigma Computers and Peripherals also said in concurrence, "September was good in terms of sales, but this month is quite slow."

Laptop accounts for nearly 70% of the sales while the remaining 30% belongs to desktop. In Akola nearly all major brands are available in the market and each of them does equal amount of business. Agarwal said, "Dell, Sony, HP, Lenovo, all brands are equally favored by the customers here." talking about the most contributing vertical of the city, he said that SOHO and home segment are the major contributors of the Akola market. Padmawar also agreed to the following and said, "SOHO and education are the prime contributors to the economy; but corporate segment is not that good."

Talking about the vendor dealer relationship of the region, Agarwal said that all is well between him and his vendors, and Akola dealers generally do not have any major issues with its vendors. But Padmawar said that some services issues are there in the region. An astonishing fact that came across from Akola market is that there is no local IT association in the region. Agarwal said, "There was an association 4-5 years back, but it isn't there anymore." Padmawar added, "We do not have any association in Akola. Of course it would be great to have one, but people never come forward to create an association. Even if they come, they have some vested (personal) interest in it."

Market Name: Akola

Market Location: Maharashtra

Surrounding Market: Mumbai, Amravati, Baglan, Nagpur

Computer Association: None

Prominent Dealers: Golden System, Mahavir Stationary, Sigma Computers and Peripherals

Business Verticals: SOHO, education