Premier Systems & Peripherals on expansion mode

MADURAI, INDIA: Besides focusing on the distribution activities, Madurai-based sub-distributor Premier Systems & Peripherals is looking to expand its retail presence across the region this fiscal.

Recently Premier was nominated as one of the five Acer sub-distributors in the state for the upcountry region for the distribution of desktops and laptops.

The vendor will be rolling out a new sub-distribution model for the distribution of these products.

“There is a huge cash crunch, due to which we are facing numerous cheque default cases. The distribution margins are also shrinking on a regular basis. However, on the consumer front we still feel the upbeat mood in spending for commercial laptops and desktops. We see this as an opportunity for us to enhance our retail presence in the region,” said K Senthil Nathan, CEO, Premier Systems & Peripherals, Madurai.

Currently Premier has a retail showroom in Madurai and is looking at setting up two more showrooms outside Madurai in the surrounding regions. Nathan said that the company wouldn’t move away from the distribution model.

“We are looking at increasing our bottomline by enhancing our focus in the retail segment. There is huge money in the retail front and we are looking at setting up a couple of showrooms, one in Tirunelveli and the other in Trichy,” he informed. He also said that though retail showrooms are prevalent in those regions, Premier could still reap the benefit as everyone has their own share in retail.

“Footfalls in every retail showroom are increasing, which gives opportunity for everyone to play around in the segment. Being present for almost 14 years in the industry, Premier has managed to obtain huge goodwill among partners and consumers. By providing right technology and solution, we feel that we can excel in our attempt at enhancing our retail operations,” Nathan claimed.

He also informed that the growth in distribution business has gradually come down. Instead of the 30 percent growth that used to happen three years ago, the company is witnessing 10-12 percent growth for the last couple of years.

Agreeing that the increasing sales in laptops have brought down the consumer interaction to a great level, Nathan said that the company is seeing a huge opportunity in terms of servicing the laptops.

“Already we have started servicing third party laptops and apart from that we are the authorized service providers for Acer laptops. We are looking at laptop servicing as a huge potential, where every month we are servicing 20-25 third party laptops regularly,” he added.