3. INGRAM MICRO Topline Growth Curtailed 

COO: NY Prasad  START-UP YEAR: 1989  BRANCHES: 29 PRODUCTS & SERVICES: Distribution of Systems, peripherals, components, and software  AGENCY OPERATIONS: HP, Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, Epson, Samsung, IBM, canon, Seagate, Sun and Cisco ADDRESS: MF 7, Cipet Hostel Road, Thiru-vi-ka Industrial Estate,  Ekkatuthangal, Chennai 600097. TEL: 5583253/54  FAX: 5586872  WEB SITE: www.ingrammicro.com   POINTERS TO PERFORMANCE Expanded its portfolio of vendors Rolled out its own brand of components - Vesta POINTERS TO FUTURE To strengthen the Vesta brand  Look for growth in B and C class cities

Ingram Micro India Ltd was the star performer of the Silver Club last year with a phenomenal growth of 217 percent. Thus, the spirits at the country's third biggest distributor can't be upbeat with less than half of that growth this year at 94 percent.

Yet, Ingram can be proud of the fact that it has the highest growth among the three biggest distributors with Redington and Tech Pacific recording a growth of 80 and 47 percent respectively. Of course, the road ahead is riddled with the obstacle of a slowdown which could further curtail the current growth.

However, Ingram should have no fears of losing its third rank in the Silver Club because Wipro at fourth position with an agency revenue of Rs 642 crore, is way behind. At the same time, to go up the ladder and occupy the No 2 position, the distributor has a long way to go because with a revenue of Rs 1345 crore, Redington is comfortably placed there. 

Ingram clocked an estimated revenue of Rs 930 crore in 2000-01, against Rs 486 crore of last year. After putting the company on a strong footing, the fiscal saw the formal bowing out of Prasad Mamidanna from the day-to-day management of Ingram Micro. Without doubt, Mamidanna played a very key role in establishing the company in India as a distributor with muscle. Along the way came a number of additions to the already bulging portfolio of vendors the company represents- IBM, Linksys, Mro-Tek, Sun and

TVSE.

Earlier, Ingram Micro's focus was on the components business, where it played a major role in establishing Quantum (now Maxtor) as an important player in the HDD segment. However, the thrust of the company last year was primarily on building the networking and enterprise solutions businesses. And the results were equally good from these two divisions.

Another big achievement was the roll out of its own brand of computer components in an effort to cater to growing demand from the assembler segment. Marketed under the brand name of Vesta, these components included motherboards, CD-ROM drives, keyboards, mouse, speakers and cabinets. 

The assembler segment constitutes about 60 percent of India's total PC market. Ingram's strategy is now to push Vesta through its existing channel partners. The idea behind Vesta was to offer channel partners quality products and improved margins.

The focus areas for the next fiscal are to strengthen the Vesta brand, establish the software business, and further increase the network. In the process, Ingram hopes to grow better than the industry average. Yet, the overall growth will not be able to cross current year's growth. 

With IM-Pulse ERP system helping Ingram in its back-end operations, it can hope to cut costs in the context of a slowdown. Also, with a high employee retention rate, Ingram is in a position to face the slowdown successfully, which should gear it up to look for higher growths in the coming years.