Now, all roads lead to upcountry markets. Every vendor/distribu-tor is concentrating on the upcountry markets as growth is phenomenal here. The busi-ness is almost doubling in these markets and home and educat-ional segments are the major drivers of the business. Internet and communication facilities are adding fuel to the growth.
Today, major distributors such as Ingram Micro, Redin-gton, Tech Pacific and fast-growing players like SES Technologies and eSys, all are campaigning in upcountry markets to increase their sales and profitability in business. Upcountry markets are all set to explode in the coming years and this is very much evident from the fact that resellers in these cities are growing in great numbers. However, the real action is yet to happen and acc-ording to industry observers, upcountry will be the happ-ening place for the next five years.
“The metro-centric concept is changing in IT business and today, everyone wants to move to growing markets as sales and profitability are quite comfort-able here. There is a month-on-month growth here and retail is catching up in a big way in the upcountry markets. Tamil Nadu is showing the way as a role model which other south-ern states picking up fast. Today, even a small town like Nagapattinam has more than 40 dealers/resellers addressing the market,” said an official from a leading chip-making company.
The leading distributors who were making a few lakh rupees in the upcountry markets a couple of years ago are presen-tly grossing revenues in crores. Meanwhile, local IT markets such as Ritchie Street are com-ing up in Trichy (Thillai Road), Madurai (North Veli Street) and other places.
SES Technologies which already has an office in Coim-batore and a sales representa-tive in Madurai, is now looking at appointing more representa-tives in select key markets to cater to places such as Tirune-lveli, Tuticorin, Thanjavur, Kum-bakonam, Erode and Salem in Tamil Nadu; Hubli, Belgaum, Dharwad and Mysore in Karna-taka; Vijayawada, Guntur, Kakinada, Rajamundry, Nellore, Anantpur, Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh; and Kollam, Kottayam, Thrissur and Calicut in
Kerala.
“We are going very aggress-ive in all upcountry markets and so far, grey occupied a major share in these markets. Now, with all distributors focusing on it, the business will grow exponentially in the next three to four quarters,” said Subramanian Kankethi, Branch Manager, SES Technologies.
Meanwhile, vendors and distributors are going aggre-ssive in conducting workshops and roadshows in the upcoun-try markets educating them on technology and product offer-ing. “We are pushing our part-ners like Intel, Lexmark, Sea-gate and Mercury to give more certification and recogni-tion for the resellers which help to drive the business,” he said.
“Upcountry markets are high growth markets for us and we make it a point to visit the B and C cities once in a week or 10 days. Moreover, we also offer them door-delivery service to give them the ease-of-doing business with us,” said Aniru-ddha Joshi, VP, Redington (India) Ltd.
Meanwhile, sub-distributors are also expanding their reach in upcountry markets by set-ting up offices in key locations.
S Gopikrishna