“In this HP-dominated printer business, we want to be a strong alternative”

Xerox has recently entered the Indian laser printer market in full throttle. Its target is to replicate the Russian success by gaining the coveted #2 position in the Indian market. Kazimierz Herchold discusses the company’s channel strategies with Cyber News Service.

What is the USP for Xerox products that you will use in the Indian market?

We have a huge range of printing solutions, right from small personal printers to high-end production printers. In this HP-dominated printer business, we want to be a strong alternative. We aim to achieve this by offering the channel a huge product range. Around the world, HP is #1, but there is no single defined #2 in the laser printer market and this is where we see good business opportunity. 

What will be your strategy to get to the #2 slot for lasers in India? 

Globally, HP is strong and leads the printer market. They have been able to do this as partners do not have a strong substitute for HP printers. To achieve the second slot, we are offering 90 unmatched products in the printer segment here. We don´t want to be over-distributed but give our channel an immediate option to HP products. This will give them a wide range of products to choose from as well as better margins to work on. 

What kind of channel structure you are envisaging for Indian operations? 

To start with, we will forge a firm relationship with our channel partners. Right now we are not concentrating on a national distribution model. We do not want to just park our inventories in warehouses and wait for the push to be created.

Instead, we would like to create a stir using our partnership with smaller distributors. We have already in place around 25 distributors, out of which there are authorized Xerox distributors in 20 cities. These are mostly A-class cities. Our aim is to create the brand loyalty in the channel and then appoint national distributors. 

What are your plans on the service infrastructure front for IT products? 

The service demand for various IT products is different. Copiers need a different level of services as compared to production products or printers. Analog products require a great deal of service infrastructure with constant spares supplies, whereas a digital product needs none or few services. Usually, most problems occur in the installation drivers or networking components, which need a different level of servicing. Thus, we will have to create a unique service infrastructure for our printers. We would like to evolve into a structure like HP.

Xerox is a strong brand in the copier market in India. How do you plan to leverage this strength here?

Xerox has been in India for the last 20 years and we lead the copiers´ market. Now the game plan is to move successfully in all directions. We have to build on our small advantages. High-end products would move by the direct account partners, but for low-end products we will have to build a new channel infrastructure. 

What is the target for the current fiscal in terms of revenue and marketshare?

We have set an aim to achieve the #2 slot in the color printer market and either second or third position in the mono printer segment. How fast and how soon we are able to reach there would depend on our competitiveness. Products moving through our channel contribute 15% of our overall revenues and we would like to gain at least 5% share of the printer market in India by the fiscal-end.

SHWETA KHANNA in New Delhi