The HP Effect

SAVEX COMPUTERS

A sparkling growth of 38 percent was enough to push Savex in line crossing the Rs 1,000 crore mark in FY09, despite the slowdown eating into the pockets of leading national distributors. HP and Logitech accounted for the bulk of business with Savex, catering to the HP Worlds as the exclusive distributor of HP desktops and notebooks.

HP systems, together with Samsung notebooks accounted for 66 percent of the total revenue contributing to about Rs 773 crore, while Acer together with Logitech consisted of 16 percent of the growth figure. Also, HP printers, taken as a stand-alone supply accounted closely to 30 percent. The rest of the business overflew on account of Logitech.

Taking the right decision at the right place with the right team at the right time was the key to Savex's performance. The distributor not only maintained its kitty low adding only Microsoft Channel OEM Business and HP ESS (Enterprise Server and Storage) business in its range. Also, Logitech, while adding the webcam C500 to its portfolio appointed Savex as its distributor.

The north region accounted for the highest growth for the company at 33.11 percent followed closely by the west at 29.57 percent. However, East continues to be a focus for Savex with the region contributing lowest to its revenue structure at 12.89 percent. It is not the metros and the Class A cities that Savex is considering at present; the upcountry has gained significant focus from the company primarily on account of its overall growth compared to the metros. Acer and Logitech featured as the top vendors for the upcountry region as Savex ventured into branch expansion with two new additions at Jabalpur and Varanasi after the success of the three inaugurations at Jammu, Calicut and Vizag.

However, like usual, Savex is not looking for expanding its vendor base and instead wants to focus on verticals associating with big names having a good brand recall value. This explains the distributor's moves in bringing Microsoft in its portfolio. Also, the same is the case with its channel partners with the company keen to maintain its base of 6,000 partners. Last FY year, Savex had concentrated more on its bottom-line claiming to out-perform its nearest competitors. Also, the company won two awards from HP and Logitech last FY.

This FY, Savex is considering to boost its bottomline with plans of venturing into the networking space with a major vendor. Also, in the field of manpower and hiring, Savex is considering increasing its total to 370 with focus on the sales and marketing field besides the administration part to support the growing internal needs of the company.

Highlights

• Continued upcountry expansion with two new branches in Jabalpur and Varansai
• Signed up with Microsoft for OEM business and HP ESS