32. GEARING UP: For Services

Fiscal 2001-02 was nothing great for Color Copi as it saw no growth in its revenue, which remained static at Rs 61 crore as it was in 2000-01. However, the year was eventful for the company in other respects. 

Not only did it tie up with new companies like Lexmark and AMD, but it also took a major step towards transforming itself from a pure box-mover company to a service-oriented one. And it was this attempt for transition that saw Color Copi opening 18 service centers across the company. 

"We made a very conscious decision last year to slowly shift our focus from volume-based business to service. And that is why we have already invested Rs 1.5 crore towards establishing our service centers," says a proud Sanjeev Gupta, Director, Color
Copi. 

The company intends making nearly 50 centers operational by this December. 

Spares selling and supplies business too did reasonably well. Despite all this, what really came as an impediment to its growth were some bad debt cases that were faced by the company last year. "We received a monetary setback because of some bad debts. However, we have recovered most of our money back," confides
Sanjeev.

Anher area about which the company is quite upbeat about is its own branded PCs called CCI systems, of which it sells nearly 150 units monthly directly to end-customers. To offer better service to its customers, Color Copi also has plans to set up a call center soon.