To garner a lion’s share of rapidly growing consumer NAS market in India, Buffalo Inc., Japan, has appointed Kolkata-based Supertron Electronics as a national distributor for its wide range of NAS solutions in India. Earlier, Buffalo had Advent Infotech as national distributor for its direct storage products.
The Indian storage market is growing at a rate of around 50–60 per cent. With the new partnership in India, it is targeting to capture at least 10 per cent of the market share in the first year. The company is targeting its major sales segments, i.e. SOHO and SMBs as it has products catering from entry level to high capacity.
Announcing the partnership, Morikazu Sano, Senior Vice-President, Global Sales and Marketing, Buffalo Inc., said, “As a leading specialist distributor of digital lifestyle components and solutions, Supertron brings the necessary expertise and experience to help us expand market footprint for our award-winning consumer NAS Solutions in India. We will work closely with Supertron in establishing a strong brand pull and channel sales for our product lines in India. We will focus on providing consumers with affordable solutions that complement their digital lifestyle.”
Adds V. K. Bhandari, Managing Director, Supertron Electronics, “Buffalo’s award-winning range of consumer NAS storage solutions complements our existing product lines perfectly and will enable us to fill a gap in the current solution portfolio for the rapidly growing digital lifestyle market in India.”
The NAS market worldwide is growing at a rate of 26 per cent, and Buffalo has a market share of 18.3 per cent. It experienced growth of 1.2 billion last year worldwide and is eyeing 1.6 billion this year. Supertron will rely on its wide network of distribution and will set up separate vertical to distribute Buffalo products. “Initially, we are targeting metros first by creating awareness about Buffalo’s products among channels and consumers,” informed Bhandari.
When asked the challenges before the company in India, Sano replied, “Well, we face two major challenges in India – the first being to establish a good channel and secondly brand promotion.”
