Vadodara: Banking on 2012 to recover

Vadodara, earlier known as Baroda, is the third most populated city in Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Surat. The city is situated on the banks of the river Vishwamitri. This garden city is the industrial capital and also the administrative HQ of the Vadodara district.
The city is also home to the Vadodara Stock Exchange, Maharaja Sayajirao University, and the Laxmi Nivas Palace. The city has also produced many international cricketers like Vijay Hazare, Chandu Borde, Kiran More, Nayan Mongia, Anshuman Gaekwad and more recently, Irfan and Yusuf Pathan.

Because of the floods in Thailand, which is a major manufacturer of hard disk drives (HDDs) used in laptops, servers, and TV set-top boxes, many companies closed their operations. It has resulted in the shortage of HDDs causing many problems in the growth of the Vadodara IT market. Paurav Choksi of Maa Trading Company said, “In recent months, because of the Thailand issue, there is a slowdown in the market. We are not able to meet our sales targets, forget about the profits.”

Otherwise, according to dealers/channel partners, the Vadodara IT market is growing at a healthy rate of 15-20% on y-o-y basis. It does an annual business of around Rs 200-250 crore. Vadodara has close to 300 dealers, out of which around 10 do annual business in the range of Rs 10-15 crore. Most of the small dealers generate their revenue by providing repair services to the customers and not through sales. Both small and big dealers cater to corporate, S0HO, government, and end-customer segments.

The demanding brands in the laptop segment are Dell, HP, Compaq, and Lenovo. As far as desktops are concerned, besides all of the above brands, Asus and Acer are also in demand. In addition to all these, SanDisk and Kingston pen-drives; HP and Canon printers; Quick Heal anti-virus; and D-Link networking products are doing good business.

When it comes to vendor-dealer relationship, Jatin Patel of Gayatri Traders said, “Overall, I'm satisfied with vendors but sometimes, they increase the sales targets, then it becomes tough on our part to fulfill their expectations.”

In order to facilitate the IT trade and industry at the local level, encourage technical and other advancements in the region, Vadodara has Baroda Information Technology Association (BITA). Dealers say that it is a very active body dedicated to solve the problems of the dealer community. It has more than 220 members on its rolls. Aashish B Parmar of Aash'Nik said, “I'm happy with its functioning. It is a good platform for all of us to discuss all trade related issues under one roof and we all try to solve problems in a friendly manner.”

The association, which was established in 1997, is organizing 'BITA IT Show, 2012' from February 17-19. The event will have various programs like seminars (covering latest IT topics by eminent speakers from the industry), quiz (inter-school/college IT based quiz competition), 'Speak it out' (panel discussion cum debate on IT related topics), Chessomic (rapid chess competition), Recycle Bin (e-waste program) and a blood donation camp.

Commenting on the upcoming event, Paurav Choksi, president, BITA said, “The registrations for stalls are open. We will advertise in the media to create awareness about the event.”

INTERVIEW: Paurav Choksi, CEO, Maa Trading Company

What are the top-selling IT brands in the Vadodara IT market?
Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, and Acer.

Which IT peripherals are more in demand?
Seagate hard disk drives, SanDisk/Kingston pen-drives and HP/Canon printers are generating good revenue for us.

Which business verticals do you serve?
We are mostly into SOHO, corporate and government.