The name says it all! A-Plus Computers, a Mumbai-based peripherals reseller,
has lived up to its name. Even during the slowdown, A-Plus has been able to
maintain a strong bottom line. And the credit for this 100 percent growth year
after year goes to Mehul Gandhi, the proprietor.
Armed with a three-year´s diploma in computer technologies, Mehul started
his career in 1995 as an engineer at a small-time systems integrator. Being a
Gujarati, the idea of running his own business was always in his mind. In April
1997, he finally took the plunge by starting A-Plus Computers.
Mehul works with a team of four employees and operates from a small office in
the suburbs of Mumbai. He believes in keeping overhead costs to the minimum.
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An ardent follower of Feng Shui, Mehul believes that the premises, working
environment and the flow of energy, do play an important role in anybody´s rise
or fall. No wonder! You are welcomed with a lot of Feng Shui articles placed all
over his premises.
Doubling growth
In the very first year A-Plus achieved a sales turnover of Rs 2 crore. Says
Mehul, "High growth in the first year was because of the high-value
products that we dealt in. Initially, our focus was on selling monitors, CPUs
and hard disks, the value of which is very high." In 1998-99 and 1999-00,
A-Plus continued to almost double its turnover with revenues of Rs 3.5 crore and
Rs 6.5 crore, respectively. In 2000-01, it reported a turnover of Rs 8.5 crore,
which was up by 30 percent. In 2001-02, A-Plus grew by 14 percent with a
turnover of Rs 9.75 crore.
In a changed market scenario, Mehul adopted a new strategy to continue in the
business. "We changed our focus from high-value products to low-value
products like mice, keyboards and cabinets where margins are good," says
Mehul.
Because of this new strategy, though A-Plus has not grown in terms of
turnover like in the past, it has maintained its profitability.
Awards and recognition
A-Plus was given the Top Reseller Award for two consecutive quarters of 2001
by ViewSonic. In recognition of the company’s efforts in increasing ViewSonic’s
business, the vendor awarded it a Maruti Zen car. Recently, it also received an
award from LG Electronics for being one of the top four resellers in Mumbai.
Now, with SIs and end-users as its target customers, A-Plus has set its focus
very clear–´no´ to wholesaling, and concentrate on maintaining the bottom
line.
Mehul attributes some part of his success to his personal interaction skills
with 80 percent of his customers on a day-to-day basis. With virtually zero bad
debts and timely service to his customers, A-Plus today stands high on goodwill
in the market.
NELSON JOHNY in Mumbai