Comhard Technologies Pvt Ltd, incepted in 2000, is a prominent Delhi-based distributor of information technology products–hardware & software and smartphones. In 2014, they forayed into distributing smartphones. In an interaction with Mobility Magazine, Ravi Kant Gupta, Director, Comhard, shares his views, his experiences in the trade and the mission and vision of their company.
“We started in 2000 as an IT distribution company and then added smartphones to our portfolio in Jan 2014. At present, nearly 50% of our revenues come from IT hardware and software and the remaining 50% come from mobiles. Earlier, our revenues from IT segment used to be Rs 7 crore per month but there was a steep drop during the last few years. Now our revenues from IT products shrank to Rs 3.5 crore/month, but we compensated the drop in IT products by selling smartphones Rs 3.5 crore per month. IT sales are expected to rise from now onwards with economy started looking upwards. Our IT portfolio includes Intex peripherals, TFTs, Microtek UPSs and Dell notebooks. Our smartphone portfolio includes Intex mobile phones, ASUS smartphones and tablets, and Gionee smartphones. Over 50% (nearly Rs 2 crore) of our mobile division’s revenues come from selling Intex brand products and the rest from Gionee and ASUS smartphones. We sell ASUS tablets, but tablet sales are dropping with smartphones with bigger screens started appearing.” Ravi Kant clarifies.
With more than a decade of technology & industry experience, Comhard specializes in providing all major IT products & solutions under one roof. They have a strong team of energetic and talented individuals who are empowered to deliver complete satisfaction to their valued customers. Comhard’s mission is to provide value-added products to the end customers through their well-established channel network.
Regions of operation and the supply channel
Ravi Kant clarifies, “Our head office is in Laxmi Nagar, East Delhi, and we have 3 three branch offices in Delhi, one each in Nehru Place, Jankpuri and Wazirpur. At present, we are strongly positioned in East and North Delhi. We have just started in South Delhi and soon we will expand to West Delhi. We have no plans to go beyond Delhi since Delhi itself is a big market and we have a lot to explore and exploit here. We have over 1400 resellers of whom about 650 are for mobiles and nearly 750 for IT. We are steadily expanding our mobile division. We are launching a new product every 3 months. Nowadays it is essential that a distributor himself should have retail outlets. Right now we have our own retail outlet in Laxmi Nagar, East Delhi and soon we want to open one more. We also have one LG service center. As far as service is concerned, we do not directly involve; we guide the customers to vendors’ service centers.”
Comhard has taken a big leap in the past 3 years by branching into PCs, notebooks and computer peripherals. Comhard strives to position themselves as an ideal distributor for the top brands to deliver best products to the end customers in a customer-friendly and competitive manner. Comhard’s direct association with the leading IT companies enables them to offer best products to the end customers at competitive prices.
Challenges and mobiles market trends
Regarding challenges and market trends, Ravi Kant reveals, “One major challenge we are facing is from online retailers who are upsetting the MOP by selling the products below market price, but we have to live with it; there is no way we can change this trend at present. Even vendors do not want to lose their share of sales they get from online retailers and so vendors want to push their products via both online and traditional channels. As far as current trends are concerned, feature phone sales are shrinking fast with smartphone prices falling. Now everyone wants to purchase only smartphones. Tablet market sales are dropping with the appearance large-screen smartphones. We distribute only ASUS tablets, but the demand is decreasing. “
In addition to the above mentioned products, Comhard also distributes desktop PCs, PC building blocks & upgrades, printers/scanners, antivirus, accounting Software – Tally.ERP9, storage devices/optical drives, input devices (mouse, keyboard, etc), offline/ online UPS systems, multimedia speakers, projectors, etc
Expectations from vendors and future plans
Regarding vendors support and future plans, Ravi Kant concludes, “Vendors should give more ads so that it will create sales pull for the dealers and distributors. Gionee and Intex are giving regular TV and newspaper ads. Vendors should also give more support to dealers through in-shop branding, newspaper ads in the dealers name, attractive incentive schemes for dealers, etc because at the end of the chain, it is the dealers who supply products to the end users and generate business. Regarding future plans, in 2015, we want to achieve a sales target of Rs 100 from our mobile phones segment. We also want to open more of our own retail outlets.”