Supertron to launch self-branded laptops

After a successful stint in selling servers, Supertron is now gearing to

launch notebooks in JFM, 2005. Supertron had tried launching notebooks an year

earlier, but would not work out a viable pricing structure. "We will

introduce notebooks only when we can maintain a price differential of 25 percent

over the MNC brands available in India," said VK Bhandari, M, Su-pertron

India. Supertron will import knocked-down compo-nents of the notebooks and

assemble them at its units in New Delhi and Kolkata.

Also, Bhandari added that even if Supertron adds its own range of notebooks,

it will not create a clash of interest with its distribution of Acer note-books.

"As a disty, we are more or less a stockist for Acer and are not involved

in brand buil-ding exercises. So if there is demand for Acer's notebooks, we

will supply it," clarifies he.

Supertron India is also talk-ing to several financial com-panies like Bajaj

Finance and Karnataka Bank, to roll out a financing scheme for its Vin-tron PCs.

In less than three months, since Supertron took over the Vintron brand, it has

managed to sell 700 PCs monthly and hope to touch a monthly sales of 1,000 units

with the introduction of this finance scheme.

Though several IT brands have opted for the easy-pay-ment structure, the

financial institutions themselves are not very forthcoming for these options.

"Banks are skeptical about offering finance schemes as they can't ask for

some security which can be sold off, in case of payment defaults. The value of

the PC, for which the loan is taken, gets depre-ciated quickly, so it is a risky

proposition for them," said VK Bhandari, Supertron India.

Another reason why this initiative has not taken off is because of the high

rejection rate of applications by banking institutions.

Supertron is also trying to put the channel in place, which will sell Vintron

PCs and moni-tors. Supertron will directly distribute the products at 15 cities

where it is present. It will appoint regional distributors in states like Kerala,

Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, where it does not have a direct pres-ence.

Supertron has 335 part-ners nationally and will incr-ease this number to 500 by

the end of 2005. Although Super-comp has included several peripherals like USB

products, data cable, TV tuner cards, webcams, etc, it is focusing more on the

PC business where the margins are higher. It was recently appointed regional

distributor for Acer India.

Vinita Bhatia


Kolkata