Black Magic Toners takes channel route

N R Sethuraman

Chennai

March 31st, 2008

Chennai-based recycled cartridge manufacturers Black Magic Toners has
proposed to take the channel route for marketing their products in B and C-class
cities across the country. The company is in the process of appointing
distributors and dealers across various places like Tiruchy, Tirupur Madurai,
Coimbatore and Nashik to name a few. Gopi Varma, Director, Black Magic Toners
said, "We planned to take the channel route to market our cartridges across
India in the B and C-class cities. However, we will continue to deal directly in
the metros and big cities."

Citing that channels are the best way to ensure good reach of products, Varma
said, "When we planned to take our products across the tier-2 and 3 cities,
we thought channels would be the ideal platform for us and didn't have a second
thought after that. Moreover, we have to go along with the market and if we
don't do that, we would be left out in the race."

He foresees a lot of opportunity in the upcountry region for the cartridges,
as the laser printers are becoming the order of the day there. This is said to
be the primary reason for the increased focus of Black Magic in those regions.

Apart from taking the channel route, they have also proposed to enter into
the retail sector. "Again retail is going to be the future and we don't
want to miss that opportunity too. So we would be starting our retail outlets in
Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore within next six months, where we would showcase
our own products for the customers to get a rich experience on the recycled
cartridge industry," Varma averred.

Speaking about the competition from this industry, he opined that as there
are not many players who are remanufacturing quality cartridges, they did not
see much competition. "Quality has been our USP and we have got a
significant brand image to emphasize our products in the market. This recycling
industry needs lots of players to come in and compete with each other, which
will in turn make the industry quality rich," he claimed.

Started in Chennai in 1999, Black Magic has its operations in 10 locations
including all the metros. It also has a training facility in its operation
center here, with which it has planned to train its channel partners in the near
future.

On the road ahead, the company has planned to centralize its operations and
has intentions to enter the SAARC courtiers. As a first step, it will start the
operations in Sri Lanka by this year-end, Varma informed.