Advertisment

Plustek is the channel driven company: Karen Ku

author-image
Priyanka Pugaokar
Updated On
New Update
Karen Mumbai Visit Sept photo

Q: Plustek is divided into two segments. One is scanners and other one is security. Can you give detailed overview of Plustek?

Advertisment

Plustek was established in 1986. This is the 28th year of year of the company. We have two main businesses. One is scanner and other one is capture products. We are dedicated to manufacturing high-quality, professional scanners as well as security devices for businesses, professionals and consumers. Scanner business is our base business. We have different categories in scanner segment catering different needs of customers. We have specific scanners for specific categories.

Q: So is Plustek only represents Scanner part in India?

At the moment yes. Because surveillance products are very very niche products and we have not yet entered into this particular segment.

Advertisment

Q: Is it is global phenomenon or only in India you are not representing surveillance products?

 We are into surveillance business in not all but some specific countries.

Q: Are you basically a channel driven company or you have direct contacts with clients?

Advertisment

Yes, we are a channel driven company. We do business through a distribution channel only. We have regional distributors, partners and ultimately end customers.

Q: What is a total strength of your partners?

 We have more than 70 active partners. Our aim is to increase our partner base upto 150. We regularly organize partners meet and update our partners about latest trends in the scanner industry.

Advertisment

Q: Being primarily a Scanner and Image company how do you analyze growth and business potentials in India in these two specific segments?

Since our base is small in India, We are looking for decent growth rate of 30% to 35%, but before that our main focus will be strengthening our base in India.

Q: Why you did not think to have printer along with scanners because MFDs are becoming more popular in India?

Advertisment

Actually we were the first company to announce MFDs. We are at the second position after HP. But then we found that there was lot of issues with inkjet and patents. Being the ink printer, HP, Epson and Canon they are already failed. It is not easy. It was not way for us because the entire technology is completely different. In printer industry bigger players are already there.

Q: Do you agree that India is very price sensitive market?

Karen Ku: Absolutely, because of the economies in developing countries, price factor is always important.

Advertisment

Q: Considering the price factor, do you have different pricing for India?

 We do have different pricing for India but the difference in prices is not very high. Because scanner is a niche product and it is a solution based product. For the user, meeting his demand is more important than price. Consumer electronics products are more price sensitive. Take the example of mobile.

Q: Since scanner is hotly contested market, how will you differentiate Plustek from your competitors?

Advertisment

We offer cost performance products to customers. We have different categories catering different segments. We have book scanners, film scanners and mobile scanners. We have two types of capture products and each product caters to different segments. We focus more on solution selling.

Q: What is your strategy to strengthen partner base in India?

We are working closely with our distributors and partners. We have planned series of events for our partners. Recently, we had channel meets in Mumbai and Delhi. Recently we opened a demo zone in Mumbai. After seeing the response, we are planning to open them in the four regions of India. We will be conducting more channel meets in the coming months.

plustek plustek-india scanner
Advertisment