New Delhi, May 12: To take on the leading storage device manufacturing companies, Seagate Corporation and Samsung in India, rival US hard disk maker Quantum Corporation plans to invest between $7 million to $ 10 million in the country towards setting up its operations in India as a prelude to a full-fledged subsidiary later. Seagate does not have a subsidiary in India and has been saying that it does not plan to start one in the immediate future as the market does not warrant it. Both Seagate and Quantum presently do not have a liaison office in India, and manage the market through a clutch of resellers out of their Singapore offices.In contrast, Quantum has appointed Rahul Bindal as its country sales manager. It has also appointed Cyberstar as its second distributor in the country, to expand its base. By opening a liaision office later and increasing its sales infrastructure, the company plans to take on Seagate locally.
"We are taking India very seriously. It is important for us as a strategic market. We hope to tap the growth in Indian IT industry. Since we plan to step up our presence and channel activities substantially in India, we have decided to appoint a second distributor in addition to Ingram Micro to provide a wider network for customers to choose from," said Quantum south Asia-Pacific sales director Kevyn Ho.
The company plans to embark on road-shows in more cities after having done so in metros like Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. The company has projected an ambitious net revenue of $55 million from its Indian operations during the current fiscal. Ho claimed that the company's operations had clocked a revenue of $28 million during the the year ending March 2000 and had increased its market share to 22 per cent. Quantum will soon launch four new products targeting desktops, enterprise and high-end market segments.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.