19. Rashi Peripherals Building Brands

MD: Suresh Pansari START-UP YEAR: 1989 NO OF PARTNERS: 800 BRANCHES: 21 PRODUCTS: PCs, peripherals and networking products VENDORS: Logitech, Microtek, Asustek, CNet, Aviosys and Palladine ADDRESS: 105, Unique House, Chakala Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 099. TEL: 022-8221013, 8329593/6637 FAX: 022-8221012 WEB SITE: www.rptechindia.com POINTERS TO PERFORMANCE Shifted from SME and SOHO to corporate segment Positioned itself as 'one-source resource' POINTERS TO FUTURE To set up premium channel to sell mid-range products To shift from non-branded to only branded products

The profitability of Rashi Peripherals has been least affected by the slowdown in the market, though the growth has fallen to 20 percent from last year's 38 percent. During 2000-01, Rashi has established itself as a value-added distributor.

"Traditionally the role of a distributor has been largely to push boxes. We, on the other hand, go out and try to build a brand and market share for all the products we sell," says Suresh

Pansari, MD.

Another reason why Rashi emerged successful, was because of the management's ability to keep its ears close to the ground.

Till the beginning of 2000, the company was selling low-end products.

But looking at the market shifting to quality rather than price, it added mid and high-end products to its portfolio. And at the same time it created a premium channel to sell these products effectively.

Rashi posted a turnover of Rs 120 crore in 2000-01 as against Rs 110 crore in the previous fiscal. Of this, agency revenues accounted for Rs 106 crore, while the rest came in from the distribution of its own 'RP Tech' range of PCs and servers.

Though the company managed to grow by 20 percent, it fell from its Silver Club position of 14 in 1999-00 to the 20th rank this

year.

Keeping in mind the slowdown, the company hopes to touch a figure of Rs 125 crore, which is just a five percent growth over the last year.

Though the company slashed prices of RP Tech PCs, it still failed to increase sales. That was when the company hit upon the idea on concentrating on the corporate and government segment. "This is because when we sell directly to this segment, we can pass on the price advantage that comes from the removal of a channel layer to the customer," says Suresh.

But this financial nitty-gritty notwithstanding, Rashi had a busy fiscal, adding four branches to its network. It also increased the number of products in different brands. For example, till earlier last year it had only seven products in Asus and four entry-level products in Logitech.

Currently this count has gone upto 80 products for Asus, while adding 40 premium products for Logitech. With this expansion, Rashi's sales for Asus and Logitech grew up by 112 and 200 percent respectively, contributing almost 50 percent to the overall turnover.

Rashi also entered into an alliance with Microtek for networking products, Aviosys for tuner cards and Palladine for PCs in addition to setting up a call center in Mumbai. In the ongoing fiscal, Rashi will concentrate on these products as well as its CNet range of networking products.