Delta Group is a Jaipur-based distributor with 10-year of presence in Rajasthan. Delta is one of the leading distributors of mobile gadgets and accessories in the state of Rajasthan. Delta which distributes mobile phone handsets—feature phones and smartphones—and their accessories currently deals mainly with three brands: Spice, Lenovo and Celkon. Other brands form only a fraction of their revenues. Dilip Kalra, Director, Delta Group, in an interaction with Mobility magazine shares his company’s philosophy, aims and future plans.
Mr Kalra states, “We have a dedicated team of professionals working with us who help us to stay ahead with new opportunities. Our sales targets for this year are: 4000 handsets for Spice, 7000 for Celkon and 25,000 for Lenovo. Since 4G is going to have a great demand, so we have introduced Lenovo’s a 4G products. We will also introduce IT Device Market for mobiles and electronic gadgets with immediate effect.”
For a Distributor, selecting the right brands is an important and critical process. If he selects some brand and discontinues it after sometime, the opportunity cost will be high. In this regard, Mr Kalra states, “Before selecting a brand, we will analyze the following points carefully: global strength and presence of the brand, quality of the products & services, marketing tactics and the comparative benefits the brand offers to the customers, image of the brand among distributor-community and how they maintain relationships with the distributors. We look for long-term associations, no short-term deals.”
In the rapidly changing market-landscape of today, a brand has to face competition and other challenges effectively so that they can stay in the market and grow. On this front, Mr Kalra explains, “The general challenge is, the market is getting highly competitive with technology changing frequently. Every day new models are coming up with competitive pricing, so there is a major chance of dead-stock creation or stocks getting outdated. So the dead-stock liquidation is a major challenge we have to overcome. To meet these challenges, we always do timely corrections, price re-positioning and ensuring the competitive specs in the products. Providing good service is the most important thing in today’s cut-throat competition. We as a Super-Stockiest provide a single window solution to our down-the-line team and always ensure the availability of spare parts all the time in each and every service center. This will also place the whole channel in a comfortable position.”
Down-the-line channel plays a very important role in the success of a distributor. In turn, the distributor has to motivate the channel partners and ensure their profitability so that they can work with drive and zeal. In this regard, Mr Kalra clarifies, “In our 10-year journey, we have introduced time to time different types of attractive schemes, incentives and other perks to motivate our channel partners. And the encouraging thing is that these schemes have been successful in motivating. To ensure the profitability of our down-the-line partners, we always float different schemes as per the Indian market trends.”
As the down-the-line partners need motivators from the distributors, distributors also need certain kinds of support and incentives from the vendors. In this regard, Mr Kalra adds, “We are expecting strong marketing and service support from our vendors and they should respond to the customers’ expectation in terms of quality and service more effectively. Vendors should ensure optimal positioning, pricing and availability. Good product quality and the latest features in the products are other desired factors from the vendors. Our vendors, Spice, Celkon and Lenovo, meet most of our expectations and that is the reason we focus mainly on these three brands which contribute over 90% of our revenue.”
Mr Kalra gives the following attributes to their three important brands:
Celkon: Provides best product quality with better pricing, always gives prompt responses to queries and provides the best service.
Lenovo: It is an international brand so the brand equity and acceptability in the market are very high. They also provide the best service.
Spice: Has good brand equity and high acceptability in market.
Regarding future plans for their company, Mr Kalra concludes, “Our revenues during FY2014-15 were Rs 230 crore. Our mission is to achieve Rs 400 crore in the FY2015-16 with main focus on the three brands: Celkon, Lenovo and Spice.”