PC component business in India witnessed reasonable growth throughout the year. But the emergence of strong gamer’s community has fuelled its growth further which is very encouraging for all players. GIGABYTE, the market leader in PC component business also focused on capturing key market share by bringing high quality products for Indian market. GIGABYTE gaming premium brand AORUS has already made it’s presence felt in the market in second half of the year. The company seems to be ready with further plans to boost its presence in year 2018. Sunil Grewal, Director, GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd. shared his overall journey in the passing year as well talked on his upcoming channel plans.
DT: What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?
Mr. Sunil: Year 2017 remains most exciting for Gigabyte in India as we are able to fuel our growth across India. Our products did extremely well in the Indian market as we offered excellent products at an affordable for PC users. We observed moderate growth for all product segments in India this year. We also extended full support to promote the industry in India. Gigabyte also organised certain events to promote high end gaming products. We always stay ahead in creating awareness and providing in hand experience for gamers in India. The major highlight was launch of GIGABYTE Gaming premium brand called “AORUS “to its components like motherboard, VGA in 2017. We had successfully positioned this product as high quality premium product in Indian market. It has been also welcomed and well accepted by gaming community.
DT: What were the major challenges for your company?
Mr. Sunil: GST and Demonetisation are the two major challenges which were faced by entire market in India this year. PC market majorly affected by demonetisation in second quarter as demand was very low due to cash crunch but gradually the market sentiments improved almost in second half of this calendar year. Whereas GST brought opportunity along with challenges for entire ecosystem. We considered it is an opportunity to take corrections in terms of Channel inventory to make business more profitable for partners in coming quarters. GIGABYTE also came up with BRIX – mini PC to help business owner implement GST compliances at competitive price. We all are very much sure that GST will surly help our economy and overall business to grow much healthier in this New Year.
DT: What's your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?
Mr. Sunil: Channel partners are our core strength who help us in retaining the market leader in India. As our company policy, we truly work very closely with partners to achieve very encouraging results for both of us. GIGABYTE is currently having 100 + premier partners and 800+ value partners spread across A, B, C, and D class cities who do continuous business with us. We take good care of partners in terms of marketing and service support. Our priority always remains to educate them on regular basis as soon we introduce new products for Indian market. Our channel education programs like ‘Chai PeCharcha’ with partners was very much appreciated by channel community which we organise in B & C class cities to make channel aware about GIGABYTE’s latest products and technology innovations. We keeps on running channel incentive programs and loyalty program for partners. We keep on motivating our partners through proper rewards which ultimately helps them in achieving higher sales.
DT: How do you assure your customer excellent service support? What are your investments plans to enhance service support infrastructure to cover entire India?
Mr. Sunil: As one of the leader in motherboard and VGA card solution providers, we are always in pursuit for fantastic user experience & support. Hence, we have technical support toll free number & non-stop Facebook page to solve user’s doubt and provide required info. To ensure the service quality, we setup 6 chipset level service hubs offering trouble shooting consultancy &walk-in repair service. With 40+ collection centers throughout India, trying to create a smooth & comfortable reach for users. All the service staff are experience & well trained from vendor side with highest industrial standard. Technology advance day by day, a good service center is the least now. We just have two service centers upgraded both in hardware and software. Capital investment carry on one step ahead against latest technology & customer’s requirement. To help user cross the barrier of time and geographical limitation. The social network service platform aligns with physical service wing that will be our focus to ensure better reach and in time solution from our team to users.
DT: What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?
Mr. Sunil: Our GTM has been very consistent during this year which has given immense results despite many challenges. With this New Year, we will have complete PC components under one roof for Indian customers. We now offer complete range of components from motherboard to graphics card, Gaming peripherals, and PSU. Now partners will have much more edge by offering complete PC with GIGABYTE components. Now as the gaming market has started gaining momentum, we will be very much aggressive in this domain by actively participating at any such activity across India. Our aim is to empower gamers by proving high quality products for their better performance.
DT: What will be major products you will be launching in year 2018? Which will be your key target verticals / market?
Mr. Sunil: GIGABYTE is the market leader in offering excellent quality products when it comes to PC components. Our focus will be on enhancing the reach of our existing products to it’s target customers. Apart from the regular products, GIGABYTE premium gaming products under AORUS brand will be also our focus area for year 2018. With the rise of gamers in India, we expect AORUS brand to get adopted by gaming community. Additionally, we will continue to focus on BRIX mini PC for education, corporate and banking segments through SIs.
DT: Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?
Mr. Sunil: GIGABYTE is currently enjoying market leadership position in motherboard segment. We have been leading this market with a constant YoY on growth in last few years. We have been very much thankful to channel partners who had helped us in sustaining this lead over the years. We are very much motivated now to take this successful journey ahead in year 2018 with support of our channel partners.
