It’s One India for Kingston

Kingston Technology commenced its operations in 1987 with just one product, and today it has grown to be one of the world's largest independent manufacturers of memory products. Kingston is also one of the leading players in India and offers a wide gamut of products in the market. Over the years, the company has established a significant channel base across the country. In the last fiscal, the company revamped its distribution model with a primary agenda of better manageability.

Ann Bai, DRAM memory sales director, APAC region, Kingston Technology said, "For Kingston's business in India market, we had experienced huge growth in sales volume in recent years, so we are still confident about the market opportunity here. We believe we still have lots of rooms to grow our business, to expand our market shares and customer base. Since India is still a fast growing market, we are optimistic about the channel market sales.

Last year, the company began to strengthen its presence in the SSD market. Through its multi-level campaign, Kingston has done considerable work in educating channel partners, especially corporate resellers, on how to position the Kingston SSD line amongst potential consumer targets. Nidhi Sethi, sales director, flash products, Kingston Technology India said, "In India, SSDs are at an inflection point with niche customer segments, especially in the enterprise and PC enthusiast communities. We have rolled out programs for corporate customers and channel partners to educate the benefits of SSD and its utilization."

INDIA BUSINESS MODEL

Kingston cooperates with several distributors to sell products to retailers, resellers, and end customers in India. The company provides these supportive partners plenty of product training, marketing support and pre/after-sales service.

The company now has a representative office in Mumbai with marketing, sales and service departments. Elaborating upon this, Bai said, "Our India team closely coordinates with local channel partners to provide quality products and service to the end users in India. Our India representative office reports to Kingston APAC headquarters in Taiwan."

Kingston takes India as a whole market and the company does not have any plan to divide India market into several parts for better manageability. For the product and service availability, the company has established a distribution network that can reach most Indian users in different areas through its channel partners and 58 service centers around India. Apart from this, the company has a dedicated field sales team in big cities, to work with our local distributors.

Kingston cooperates with its official distributors in India wherein the entire range of SSD product line is available along with its flash product distributors including Avnet India, Fortune Marketing, HCL Infosystems, Compuage Infocom, Neoteric Informatique, Shree Pati Computers. While, the DRAM range products is distributed through Avnet India, Ingram Micro, Neoteric Informatique, HCL Infosystems, Compuage Infocom, Transtek Infoways, and Shree Pati Computers.

Talking about research and development (R&D) centers, the company does not have R&D centers in India. Adding to this, Bai said, "Kingston has long-term commitment to India market and we will do any necessary investment in this first priority market. Once the suitable timing comes, we will also invest to establish R&D centers after evaluation."

SERVICE & SUPPORT

Post-sales support and service network is indeed a critical factor that determines a company's success in India. To address the post-sales concerns and queries, the company has about 58 authorized service centers around India. In addition, Bai said, "We want to make sure that Kingston products are the best performing, easiest-to-use products in the industry. However, if users experience difficulty during the installation and subsequent use, they may contact us on our regional based hotlines or may write to us."