Apex to discontinue imports of HDDs

Chennai-based Apex Computers is planning to discontinue its commodity
business due to drop in demand and the economy slowdown. Under its commodity
division, Apex imported products like CD-ROM, harddisk drives and CDRW, to name
a few.

However, company’s authorized distributors in India will continue to
address the service and support for Apex’s customers across the country. The
company had appointed around 60 channel partners in India to distribute its
commodity products out of which only about 30 were authorized to handle service
and support issues.

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SM Krishna

Giving an explanation, PS Thiagarajan, MD, Apex Computers says,
"Profitability eroded and so we discontinued the commodity business.
However, we will continue to dispatch Apex products on bulk orders."
According to the company, the commodity business contributed about 60 percent to
company’s total revenue during FY 2001-02.

The company has tied up with US-based Spectra Logic to distribute its entire
range of tape libraries for SAN environment.

According to Thiagarajan, this initiative will help Apex shift its focus from
being a product company to solutions provider.

Apex also plans to appoint regional distributors and VARs for distribution of
Spectra Logic’s tape library products. By the end of this year, the company
plans to achieve a turnover of US $3 million from its solutions business.

SUNILA PAUL