Altec Lansing’s big plans for India

Zia Askari & Asim Raina

NEW DELHI: After establishing a good foothold in India, US-based Altec Lansing Technologies is all set to increase its focus on the country. "We came to India about 18 months back and by now we have established our channel network, so the phase one is over now. Now we are looking forward to initiate the phase two of our operations, which includes launching new products and offerings for the Indian region," informed Altec Lansing VP (Sales and Business Development- Asia Pacific) Anthony Wilkinson.

Within India, the company is operating under three master distributors–Delhi-based Trifin Technologies for the north, Mumbai-based Zeta Technologies for the south and Chennai-based ArcMax for the south and east regions. But very shortly, only Trifin and Zeta will remain.

While Trifin will also look at the east region, Zeta will cover south apart from west. "These two distributors are responsible to take care of the distribution of our products in their respective regions. At present there are more than 300 resellers working under Zeta and about 150 are working with Trifin. So that way we have got the market penetration and now we need to consolidate our channel initiatives and concentrate on products," added Wilkinson.

In continuation with its channel consolidation efforts, the company is looking forward to hire a marketing person who will operate out of Zeta’s office in Mumbai and will take care of the channel relationship, different incentive programs and move forward the company’s marketing efforts.


"In this region we have three major markets–India, China and Australia. We have just recruited a person in Australia, who is handling all the marketing efforts and the same is going to happen with India too within the next two-three months. China will follow sometime next year," he informed.

As Altec increases its focus in India, the company plans to have its own ‘Altec World Stores’ located at all the major metros in the country. "Initially we will start off from Mumbai and Delhi and after that we will look into other metros as well. These stores will have all of our latest products and product imagery for the common public. Basically, the idea is to show the lifestyle imagery of Altec," explained Wilkinson.

Targeting the market segment of ‘powered audio’, the company is going to launch various products catering to the different needs of lifestyle audio and multimedia segments. "People understand Altec’s strengths in multimedia audio but they don’t know the depth of the company when it comes to providing audio solutions. We have our roots going down in almost every segment within audio industry–be it car audio, recording studio, microphone technology or theater audio systems. We want to increase awareness about our activities in the market and it will be done very soon," he said.

Talking about different markets and Altec’s presence around the world, Wilkinson informed that the company enjoys a market leading 40 percent marketshare in the US as well as the Singapore markets. "We don’t have any hardcore estimate about the Indian market but the sheer size of the Indian market makes it one of the most attractive places to have your presence.

By the end of 2005 we will be in the leading spot when it comes to power audio and multimedia segments," he added.

(CNS)