Western Digital all set to penetrate Indian market

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Tuesday, 18 May 2004, 19:30 IST
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MUMBAI: Western Digital (WD), worldÂ’s third largest hard disk drive maker, is all set to penetrate the Indian market with a renewed focus. The company has been here in India since February 2002, but had failed to make its presence felt. But, this time the company appears focused with its new set of strategies for India. "We will have a different story to tell after three months," said WD emerging markets regional director Hafeez Khawaja, who was in Mumbai to brief the new strategy ."After China, the world is talking only about India. And we know that there exist a huge market for good and reliable products," said Khawaja. "Our aim is to create a success based on the product offerings and track records with OEMs," he added. The companyÂ’s plans include setting up a new office and expansion of local team with dedicated sales personnel who will focus only on direct interaction with customers. This team of seven members will generate lead for the partners and also play the role of educating customers about the features of WD HDDs. As a part of the revamping process, it has scrapped the distribution tie-up with eSys and has appointed Mumbai-based Priya Ltd. as the distributor. In the coming months, the company has plans to add few more distributors. To strengthen its service strategy, it has tied up with Singapore-based RT Outsourcing Services with branches in Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and Calcutta. Besides this service network, customers can avail of the extensive infrastructure of Priya, which has got 21 branches with service centers and stocking warehouses across the country. Priya will be distributing WDÂ’s entire range of award-winning products, which includes Protege, Caviar, Performer, and Raptor models of HDDs. About the pricing, Khawaja explains that WD HDDs are not the cheapest but are competitively priced. It comes with one year warranty, but Priya has agreed to offer three years warranty for an additional charge of Rs 100. Meanwhile, Priya group chairman AK Bhuwania has announced that it will be integrating WD HDDs in its Krypton brand PCs. WD has also partnered with Zenith Computers as an OEM supplier of HDDs.

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