"Indian market is very sensitive and important for us"

Tejas Sheth, country manager, AsiaPowercom in an interaction with DQ Channels elaborates upon company's channel strategy and plans for India

Explain briefly about the business model of the company.
Asia Powercom is headquartered in Mumbai, markets and services UPS systems, Solar System and Inverter for a wide range of applications. Asia Powercom in India is poised to present new product models with better performance, meeting worldwide standard at competitive cost, faster than its competitors is all set to penetrate the Indian market with a great thrust.
We are 100 % channel oriented company and sell products across India through our Regional Distributors, LFR's and NSIs. The Company is poised to grow and is all set to penetrate the Indian market with a great thrust with its complete wide range of product, with its policy "Quality First, Customer First", AsiaPower range of products is highly recognized by customers across the country.

Describe the company's products driving the Indian market? What is the next product in store for the Indian market?
AsiaPower brand owned by AsiaPowercom has below product vertical / portfolios.
Line Interactive UPS, Online High freq UPS, Online Low freq UPS, Surge Protector, Laptop Adapter, Powerbank, SMPS, Solar Street Light, Solar Inverter, and AVR.
UPS, Surge protectors, SMPS, Laptop adapters, AVR and Powerbanks are the major products driving Indian market. We have recently added Surge protectors, Laptop adapters and Powerbanks to the product line and will be launching new products in this year.

How important is the Indian market for the company's India's channel network?
Indian market is very sensitive and also very important to us. The price factor plays a major role in this business, as Indian market is price sensitive. Our products are affordable and do not compromise with the quality.

Describe in details about the channel structure of the company.
For consumer product line, we have distributors in every state known as Regional Distributors (RD). In most of the states, we have 2 or 3 RDs operating. In few cities we have more than 3 RDs. We have partners who work hand-in-hand with clear focus on business growth. We have strong base in Western India when compared to other regions of India.

How does the company cover the vast geography of the nation?
We have presence across India. J&K is covered from Punjab and other 7 states of North East are covered from Guwahati. We have RDs and our own sales team/executives operating across India.

How significant are the channel partners for the company's business growth in India? How many channel partners are there currently? Do you plan to increase your channel base in India by the end of this year?
Channel partners are the backbone of our company. We believe in gaining knowledge, educate our partners on the growing technology, product knowledge and after sales service through regular training programs. These factors and the support will encourage our channel partners to perform well and we can expect increase in the sales. We have more than 60 places where our RD / sales executives are present across India. Channel partners are very important. We are now growing our base and foothold in Northern region. We aim to increase our partner base to 75 by yearend.

What is the go-to-market strategy? What is the focus segment (large enterprises/ SMBs)?
Our focus is Consumer + SMB. For both we reach through our channel partners.
GTM for Consumer: Give variety of product and bring in value for money & incentives to the channel.
GTM for SMB: Give very stable product with excellent after sales service support, delivery on time and execution for large projects.

Which vertical in the Indian market contributes the most in the business growth? And, what are your further plans to enhance the business growth from these verticals which brings in a larger chunk of business?
For us it will be: Consumer segment generates business of 50%: SOHO & SMB segments generates business of 50% and we shall continue to have 50: 50 ratios.

What was the recently launched channel program in India and how was it successful? Are you planning to come up with a new channel program in the coming months?
Yes, we keep coming out with programs for our channel partners very often. Recently, we announced AMJ2013 resellers scheme, which is ongoing and resellers are entitled to get AsiaPower Laptop Adapters and Powerbanks on invoice value worth `25,000/- to `1,00,000/-. We are planning for few more channel schemes in the coming months.

What is the company's future plans for India?
To introduce more innovative products in different verticals.