Channel Chief
“We want 30 percent share in MFPs”
 Managing Director Toshiyuki Takamure spoke to Dhaval Valia about Brother International India’s strategy to get into the top league in the country
How would you rate the performance of your Indian operations?
While Brother International had a liaison office in India since 2001, it was only in early 2007 that we set up a direct subsidiary.
In FY2007-08 we grew by 70 percent, while in FY2008-09 we recorded a growth of 50 percent. Last fiscal, FY2009-10, was challenging as we registered a flat growth. But with global economic recovery, we are seeing a strong growth in the market.
In Q1 FY2010-11, we grew by almost 80 percent compared to Q1 of the last fiscal. We expect more than 50 percent topline growth in the current fiscal. India has emerged as the fastest growing market for Brother, even better than China. Our current market share is less than 10 percent, so we see a considerable growth opportunity too.
Our aim is to achieve a market share of 30 percent in the multi-function printers (MFPs) and 15 percent share in the single-function lasers in the next two years. This is the share we enjoy in the rest of Asia-Pacific and China.
The current fiscal is going to be crucial in achieving this milestone. We will be investing heavily in channel and customer marketing this year.
Isn’t it a rather optimistic target? Especially considering that Brother has a marginal market share in the overall office printing segment, and its brand awareness isn’t as high.
It’s a realistic target and we are confident of achieving this benchmark within the set deadline.
In the past two years we have done a lot of work in building the sales and channel network, and support infrastructure. We have a strong distribution network that consists of Ingram Micro, Neoteric Informatique and Lipi Data Systems. Over the last 12 months, we have expanded our network of tier-2 channel partners. That has given us significant penetration in the market.
In addition to leveraging our strengths, we will also create market and brand awareness for the Brother brand. This will be aided by new technology launches and major refresh of our existing portfolio.
With these plans in place, we are confident of gaining substantial market share. Let me remind you that Brother enjoys a strong mind and market share in markets like Australia-New Zealand (ANZ), China, US and Europe.
In fact, in ANZ, we are a market leader in the multi-function category, ahead of HP, while in Europe and US in the MFP space we have a 30 percent plus share.
So what new products can be expected from Brother?
We will introduce a new range of color LED printers and MFPs in India this year. The range comprises two single-function printers HL-3040CN, priced at `20,900, and HL-3070CW, at `24,540; and two all-in-ones DCP-9010CN, available at `29,090, and MFC-9120CN at `33,630.
We believe that LED is the technology of the future. It provides a better TCO over color lasers and inkjets, not just in terms of acquisition cost but also running costs. The USP of our LED offering is the pricing.
Next on the agenda is our A3 inkjet portfolio. Presently, we have just two SKUs but we plan to increase the offerings. Our inkjet A3 model is more competitively priced than other players in the market, and best suited for mid-market customers.
Among the existing range, we want to aggressively push the single-function monochrome lasers. Unlike developed markets like ANZ, US and Europe, India still sells a large number of single-function mono-chrome lasers.
Any further plans to strengthen your customer and channel connect?
Over the last 12 months, we have been gaining significant traction among the partner community. This has been aided by the products shortages from our competitors.
We will continue to expand our channel network in the current fiscal as well. Our 20-city campaign BrotherNext is aimed at increasing our engagement with our tier-2 partners. We are demonstrating our new range and discussing new opportunities in the marketplace with them.
Post-sales support is critical to succeed in India, and partners usually prefer to work with vendors who offer the best support. Keeping this in mind, we have invested significantly in creating a strong support infrastructure.
In 2008, we had 89 service centers under our BEST (Brother Express Support Team) program. Today, we have 214 service centers across 133 locations. We plan to set up service centers in about 160 locations by the end of current fiscal.
Also, we intend to increase our engagement with large system integrators in order to target the large enterprises. |