The days are gone when Indian companies were lacking in proving excellent product and best service support. Intex, the leading Indian brand has set an example by offering high quality products for any set of consumers not only IT domain but in Smartphone and Consumer Durable segment also. Ms. Nidhi Markanday, Director & Business Head, Intex Technologies shares her insight and plan for Intex.
DT: How do you see ICT market after GST? How it will help you in working effectively across entire states?
Ms. Nidhi: For ICT industry be it Mobile phones or the IT Products segment, the effective GST rates are minimal (within 0.5% to 2%) and well within the range for Intex to absorb the tax appreciation on order to cushion the consumers from price escalation.GST will surely help Intex as India now becomes a Single Market, leading to uniform tax across all states and check-posts being removed from borders will remove unnecessary delays. The biggest relief will be with respect to supply chain and logistics as GST resolves the problem of cascading effect of multiple taxes on the business. This will boost operational efficiencies, increase cost savings and make products more competitive. This will help in a major way to simplify the way we do business and will boost government initiatives on ease of doing business in India.
DT: How much growth you are expecting from IT & peripherals business by this year?
Ms. Nidhi: In past two financial years, CDIT vertical has grown fast, increasing its share in overall Intex revenue up to 25%. In FY 16-17, the overall revenue of Rs 4800crore, CDIT contribute 1600crore. Intex plans to take CDIT Revenue to Rs 5000crore in near future.
DT: What are the upcoming plans for Intex’s consumer durable brands?
Ms. Nidhi: With a renewed focus on expanding consumer durables portfolio since 2016, Intex has introduced a plethora of products like Direct-Cooling Refrigerators, Smart LED TVs, Fully-Auto Washing Machines, AirPurifiers, Air Coolers and in March this year, we launched Air-Conditioner range as the next natural step to complete Intex’s bouquet of consumer durables offerings. Intex will be strengthening its Smart LED TV portfolio with 4K TV models, frost-free refrigerators, Fully--Automatic Front Load washing machines and others.
DT: What are your plans for providing excellent service support to your customers?
Ms. Nidhi: At Intex, we believe in offering end-to-end services to our consumers which are offered pan- India almost across 1000+ cities with the presence of Exclusive Partners in more than 100 cities. Intex has various new initiatives and processes that ensure the delivery of robust after-sales services to ensure true customer delight. Through these new initiatives, receiving regular customer testimonials has become a trend. The name of the Initiative is IMD i.e. I Made a Difference. IMD is a program where any employee/service partner shares the customer satisfaction story which he feels, is a result of excellent customer service/best practice.
We have taken few preliminary steps in the direction of Virtual Service Centres. At present, Intex MICPs are spread across 24 states and 30 cities led by west, north, east and south regions. Intex Service network spread across 1000+ cities across pan India with a network presence of around 1500+ service partners (ICPs) and 100+ Exclusive Intex Care Partners, called as EICPs.
DT: Are you guys working to expand your distribution network in smaller cities? Please share your complete strength of partners.
Ms. Nidhi: Our channel strategy has always been a vital part of our growth plans. With a strong network of partners our focus is in reaching the consumers across the country. We have 20,000 retail partners and plans to expand the partner base to 50,000 by next year. Over 70% of the distribution network lies in the Tier 2&3 cities and rural regions. Intex believes in omni-presence marketing and Sales-distribution network. Intex’s spread is 75% in general trade, Online accounting to 15% and LFR is 10%. In the Power banks segment our spread accounts for 80% Online and GT/LFR coming up to 20%.
