Kolkata based Supert​r​on enters VAD business

​Distribution house Supert​r​on recently added global brands like BARCO, Synology, ZeeVee among others to its value-added distribution (VAD) business 

Supertron Electronics, one of the leading regional distributors from the eastern region for consumer electronics products has decided to venture into value-added distribution (VAD) business. The distributor feels the new line of business, having VAD capabilities like a product demo, installations and services will be paying dividends in the long run. As of now, this six months old business is looking to add more vendor partnerships.

Speaking to CRN, V K Bhandari, Chairman, and MD, Supertron says, “In last 25 years, Supertron has established a strong position in IT hardware distribution. With VAD, we have partnered with global brands like BARCO, Synology, ZeeVee among others. Nevertheless, we will continue to grow our traditional hardware, retail partners network. Currently, we are a distributor for 29 brands and every year we add six-seven brands into our kitty. Despite this, the distribution business is seeing sluggish growth, but we have been maintaining a doubled digit growth year-on-year.”

When asked how Supertron is maintaining the growth, Bhandari replies, “We believe in the exclusive and sole distribution for brands, even though vendors tend to have a multi-distribution approach. But, we always push for exclusivity as that brings more responsibility on our shoulder and we don’t work as a fulfillment provider. We put in lots of effort in building the brand in the channel and market. A large amount of our successful partnership with vendors is based on this and we will continue to maintain this business strategy as we grow.”

On the hardware distribution side, Supertron has recently added anti-virus software business for the Kaspersky line of consumer range solution. The distributor looks to strengthen the Kaspersky brand in the channel and sees a healthy market share for the AV business. This Kolkata based distributor believes in mapping the market before entering into any brand partnership. “We strongly believe in our expertise of channel network and distribution capabilities to create the market for our vendors. For example, the Dell TFT business and many others are a success story that we have built from scratch,” Bhandari informs.

Today, Supertron is reckoned for building brand positioning for the vendors. Over the years, it has a pan India presence with 36 branch offices and warehouses and 19 satellite offices across 37 states and UTs, covering 712 districts with 650 plus employees and a strong network of 27 service locations. Supertron caters to horizontal as well as vertical centric IT System Integrator as well as Audio Video partners spread across the country. The success of its strategic tie-ups with key OEM’s has bolstered the growth of Supertron and helped the company to strengthen its position among the leading distribution houses in India.

Recently, Bhandari’s son Vipul Bhandari has joined the distribution business. The new VAD business is headed by Debraj Dam with a prime focus on Unified Communication, AVS (Audio, Video, and Surveillance) and DCS (Data Centre and Storage) domain. The strategy is a consultative approach to understand and work together with system integrators as well as their customers by providing unique solutions based on future technology deployment Audio, Voice, Data, Networking, and Application.

 “We started working to build an energetic team in order to align the significant range of skills and capabilities. These are designed to offer superior services to partners and its customer across PAN India as we are majorly working as an extended arm of our OEM’s. The strength of Supertron will be leveraged to its optimum capacity by connecting all the dots aligned and made more agile by empowering the team to take timely decisions. Thereby benefiting AV/IT SI partners and simultaneously giving them access to solution consulting, virtual product selection & demo, professional services like installations and importantly access to channel finance scheme,” says Dam, Chief of VAD business, Supertron.