Belkin appoints Caltron as its Eastern RD

Kolkata: Belkin has appointed Caltron Group as its regional distributor (RD) in the East. The decision came after Advance Management Systems, Belkin's former RD decided to focus more on retailing rather than its distribution business.

Talking about the new appointment Mohit Anand, Country Manager, Belkin India said, "Advance is now focussing primarily into the retail segment and is less interested in distribution. We are growing across the nation at an aggressive pace and cannot afford to leave the east unattended. The decision to appoint Caltron was primarily based on its reach and market penetration across the region. Apart from its good market presence, the company also has a good track record and is financially stable. According to my estimates, Caltron is among the top four players in the eastern market."

The networking company has started focusing on increasing its presence across India. With its renewed set-up for East, Belkin is expecting East to contribute at least 10 percent to its total national revenue.

Signalling an aggressive market plan and take the company to a new high, Anand elaborated, "In five months time we have achieved grown by $ 3 million and will be closing this FY at $ 5 million. Now, our target is to take it to $ 100 in five years. Primarily, we will be achieving this through our product mix and our commitment to push the product through channels".

The company has already reinforced its loyalty towards the channels as it avoids direct billing and focuses on building its RD base. At present the company has seven RDs spread across in India.

"I agree to the facts that East is plagued by problems like improper infrastructure, low level of information and poor work culture. However, East has the highest potential to grow. In my opinion, this region is still untapped and I view it as an opportunity," Anand added.

The company has also said that soon, it will be diversifying its product range and will be expanding its horizon. Working strong over its distribution base and the right product mix, Belkin is targeting to tap top 100 cities in the coming year.

Commenting over the channel space in the east, Anand said, "Compared to the national channel sales scenario, for us, East has always been consistent. There is a good mix of products and brands with clear demarcated territory. Further, this area is marked by brand loyalty and the channel knows its territory well and understand the area of operation."

Also, Anand made it clear that despite Belkin's target of diversifying its product range, the company will not be entering mainstream IT and will be consolidating its channel policy in the region for at least a year. Recently, Belkin has come up with new product range in routers, and switches and will soon be launching a new range of mice.