Pearl Peripherals of Baroda closes shop

Baroda-based Pearl Peri- pherals has almost closed its shop due to
undercutting of IT components causing huge loss to distributors especially
Redington. Interestingly, Pearl was not a fly-by-night operator as he started
his business close to 20 years back from Bharuch, according to the local channel
market.

However, for the last three years, Pearl is said to have been involved in
undercutting of IT components especially Intel CPUs. Channel insiders added that
the reseller was able to cut down prices as it managed in obtaining a license
from the Gujarat government for manu-facturing in backward areas thereby
achieving exemption of taxes.

This Baroda-based dealer also managed in getting loans from Ankleshwar Nagrik
Bank and did not stop here as it is said to have taken loans from other banks
also. The owner Nischith Patel is also said to have led a luxurious life. Accor-ding
to the market, he owned a Pajero and a Honda Accord.

Redington officials were not available for comment at the time of filing the
news. How-ever, the channel market at Ba-roda has mentioned an amount in the
region of Rs 20 to 50 lakh, said to have been lost by Redington.

"Other channel partners were aware of the transactions of Pearl as it
also affected their business. But to a large extent, channel partners like Pearl
are able to carry on such kind of business because of the sup-port of
distributors," pointed out Dinesh Patel, President, Baroda Information
Techno-logy Association (BITA).

Pearl was also said to be dumping products on a large scale in Ahmedabad from
Baroda, which also affected the markets out of Baroda. It also dealt with other
products like Epson, HP, Samsung (star elite partner) and was one of the sub
distributor for Intel in India, according to market insiders.

Patel, the owner of Pearl has disappeared from the market and partners from
Baroda also added that he has left Indian shores. One of his relative was
temporarily running the busi-ness but now even he seems to have dis-appeared,
according to the market.

Nancy Sudheer

Mumbai