ReStor planning big through hard drive repairs

ReStor focuses on hard drive repairs with current figures ranging from 1,500-5,000 units and aims to reach at 10,000 monthly figure, by the end of March 2014

In the first nine months since its inception, ReStor, part of DStor technologies, has aimed for `1 crore revenue from its hard drive repairing unit--seen as the first one in India--at Delhi-NCR. The unit started recently, in July.

Sharad Srivastava, MD, ReStor, said, that currently the company focuses on hard drive repairs with monthly repairs ranging from 1,500-5,000 units and aims to reach at 10,000 monthly figure, by the end of March 2014.

The reports also suggest that there are around 68 mn active installed drives citing CyberMedia Research revelations. This is where Srivastava's ReStor comes into picture, where he feels that his company has bridged the delta to cater a lot of out-of-warranty hard-drives. He adds, "There is a huge market in this segment as warranty expired hard-drives are as good as junk. Consider this as a green initiative at reasonable cost."

So what made ReStor to venture in India as first facility for repairing hard disk drives? With huge investments and lot of technical expertise, how is it viable?
Srivastava mentions about the hard drive prices increase by100 % in the last two years and then he felt the need to start the repairing unit. He adds, "Earlier the hard-drive came with low cost and a high warranty and hence, there was no market for hard drive repair. However, after the flood in Thailand, prices just doubled. Also, somewhere in 2011 end, the warranty came down drastically."
This, he feels, led to the ideation of repair industry. He adds, "So now the business seems viable as lot customers opts for ourservices."

 

Facility
According to the reports, the repair facility incorporates a completely sterile clean room type environment with electro-static discharge (ESD) safe set-up, a combination of indigenously developed testing bays or racks and imported diagnostics jigs, and is backed by a highly trained and experienced technical team.
Srivastava mentioned that hard drive is one of the most fragile items in the computer which requires much care in handling and protection as it has all sorts of engineering from chemical to aerodynamics to mechanical is involved. It makes a hard drive a complex machine, says Srivastava.

Asked where he sources the repair parts from, he mentioned that the company does not go at components levels or shield models as this requires a huge investment. Also, he said that by doing this, the repair cost of hard-drive will be more than the actual cost.

On the market front, he says channel partners will play a very important role in driving his business. He adds, "SIs, OEMs, or be it single end user, ours is an economically viable solution. As part of their whole value, AMCs is one area where partners can get benefit from us."

The company normally charge 40% of the original price of the hard-drives, for repair work. He adds, "We give commissions in the range of 10-20% for the hard-drives routed through partners, depending on the specifications."