Samtel targets to sell 1.2 million monitors by 2003

Samtel India Ltd is targeting a sale of 1.2 million monitors (color as well as monochrome) by March 2003, 15 percent of which, company confirmed, would come from the overseas sales. Further, Samtel is expecting to push three lakh monitors (including 2.6 lakh color) by 2000-01 as compared to 1.75 lakh (including 1.25 lakh color) which it claimed to have achieved in 1999-2000, a growth of over 70 percent.

In fact, according to MS Kohli, Assistant GM (Marketing), Samtel, had it not been for the economic slowdown, Samtel would have achieved a target of 3.65 lakh units in the current fiscal.

In terms of revenue, Samtel achieved Rs 75 crore in 1999-2000. In the current fiscal, it expects to close the year at Rs 135 to 140 crore. Alongside, Samtel is targeting to push 4.4 lakh monitors (including four lakh color) in 2001-02. For this, it has lined up various strategies. First and foremost, the company plans to expand its channel network all across India. At present, Samtel has 150 active distributors in the first tier and 900 to 1,000 very active resellers in the second-tier. 

"For us, channel partners are like are own employees and we work very closely with them", claimed Kohli. Another feather to its cap would be a Color Display Tube (CDT) factory, which is coming up in Ghaziabad by year 2002. At present, factory is under construction. "Since picture tubes constitute about 45 to 50 percent material cost of a monitor, it gives us the strength to leverage our technical expertise," Kohli said. To start with, Samtel is coming out with 15 inch CDT from the factory and would later graduate to 17 inch.

When asked, Kohli refused to divulge the investment made in the CDT factory. Commenting on why Samtel wants to enter into manufacturing of CDT, he explained that worldwide monitor industry is consolidating and out of the top seven monitor manufacturers, five make CDTs and that they wanted to repeat the trend in India also.

There are no plans, though, for any brand building exercise. However, Kohli conceded that the company is not looking at mass marketing rather it wants to target specific audience. He confirmed that it is a conscious effort on its part not to spend too much on brand awareness. "Monitor is all about two percent game. If one wants to invest in brand building, one has to invest at least seven to eight percent of the total turnover, which I don't think is a viable option. We believe in low cost, high volumes and high conversion efficiency. Our strategy is less investment and more perspiration."

However, Kohli affirmed that Samtel has different approach to make itself visible among its core customers--assemblers and channel partners. The company has Samtel Assembler Club (SAC), where each sales executive handles 30 to 60 given assemblers in a region. Right from incentivizing to communicating, every small detail about the assembler is taken care of by its executives. "It is our way of showing that we care for our partners. It is not the power of brand but our close relationship, which has reaped dividends for us. Partners look for the product which is of excellent quality with consistent availability."

Having already added itself to the portfolio of the likes of Wipro and HCL for the OEM sales, plans are already afoot to add some more OEMs. "Wipro's 80 percent of monitor needs are fed by Samtel only which itself speaks for itself," boasted

Kohli.

Samtel diversified into PC monitors in 1995 with monochrome monitors only and later branched out into color monitors. The company's core area of specialization is video display where it makes glass shells, electron guns, picture tubes and monitors.