We plan to penetrate into 100 cities of India

Having recently forayed into structured cabling in India, Belkin is
looking at working with partners who are already established in the networking
segment. Anand elaborated on the company's strategies for expansion in India

Belkin started India operations in January 2009 with laptop accessories,
wireless routers and surge protectors. What made the company foray into
structured cabling now and not before?

Structured cabling is our principal world product. We are #3 in the world in
this business. We started India operations with laptop accessories, switches and
wireless routers because they were the need of the market at that time. The
reason we did not enter with structured cabling is because this market was at a
nascent stage. The structured cabling market in India is pegged to touch Rs
1,600 crore and therefore, we thought it is the right time to become active in
this segment.

What are Belkin's channel expansion plans as far as structured cabling is
concerned?

We are adopting a 'Crawl-Walk-Run' approach in this segment. On a long-term
basis, we plan to penetrate into 100 cities of India. But initially, we will
target the top 12 cities of this country. In order to do all of this, we
certainly need to add more channel partners to our network. To start with, we
will be appointing 500 channel partners for the structured cabling business in
these three months. And after that, we will increase our partner size to 800
within six months. We have hired 30 channel sales managers specifically for
expanding our business in the structured cabling segment and we have chosen Iris
Computers and Neoteric Infomatique as our national distributors for this
segment.

What is your criteria for selecting channel partners for business ?

We want to appoint partners who are already established in the networking
business, as they are likely to understand our requirement faster, compared to
normal dealers. The partner should have a good knowledge about the products. If
our partners perform well, we will give them rebates in form of incentives. In
addition to this, the top management within Belkin will be visiting top 12
cities in the country with specific motives of educating all system integrators
in the region about structured cabling to promote the Belkin brand.

What kind of marketshare is the company aiming for in India?

India is a huge market for us. It is second after China. We are going to
invest a substantial amount in this country as it is predicted to be the fastest
growing market in the world. As far as the marketshare in the structured cabling
segment here is concerned, the company is looking at an overall share of up to
five percent comprising of both copper and fiber cables. By the end of March
2011, we expect to have a marketshare of around seven percent in the segment. As
of now we have zero markershare. In the next 12 months, we are also looking at
revenues exceeding $5 million and $8 million to $12 million in the subsequent
years.

What would be Belkin's focus area, in terms of acquiring business ?

Structured cabling is meant for SMBs and large enterprises. So, both will be
our target areas. We, as a company, are flexible in terms of providing our
services. Apart from this, we can cater to any company irrespective of its size.
Meanwhile, the USP of structured cabling product is to have a made-to-order
facility for our customers. We are the only company in the country to provide
this feature in our products. We are equipped to make custom-made cables as per
demands of our customers.

What are the future plans of Belkin in India?

Since we have recently started operations in India, one can expect a lot of
activities from us. Apart from investing heavily in channel, we will invest on
research and development and will also aggressively advertise our brand in
India. In addition to this, we are planning to set up a manufacturing unit in
the near future, which will give us an immediate edge over our competitors.
Currently, we manufacture cables only in China.

Bharat Sharma

bharats@cybermedia.co.in