Mediaman Group to focus on Retail Business :By - Dushyant Mehta CEO, Mediaman Group

One of the experienced value-added distribution companies since 1987, Mediaman Group has been the pioneer of many trends in the Indian market. Today, it might be focussing on some of the niche products, but in the memory lane, Dushyant Mehta and his Mediaman Group have started many initiatives, which are first to India. In 1990, he brought the first Colour Monitor TVM in India in 640 x 480 & 1024 x 768 Resolutions to India. In 1991, he introduced the Digital Imaging Products first in India. There are umpteen numbers of initiatives to his credit.

For Mediaman, customers are its strength. Thus, the company intends to create value for its customers by bringing the advantages of Information Technology to widen their efficiency and quality of their products and services. Today, Mediaman has moved forward embracing the new opportunities in Memory modules, external storage drives and mobile accessories. The company is now a Rs.153-crore company.

It has the entire range of Transcend products, Western Digital External Drives and laptop batteries and accessories under Bravish brand. Dushyant Mehta, CEO, Mediaman Group, says, “Reach-wise and business-wise, we are the biggest distributor for Transcend and the sole distributors for western digital external drives.” And, Bravish brand under which the laptop batteries and accessories are sold belongs to the company itself.

The advantage of Mediaman is definitely its experience in this business. The company adds a lot of value to the plethora of offerings. Dushyant adds, “In my type of products, it is obvious that we need to add value, but when the customers know that he is in the safe hands I think that is the biggest value addition.”

Besides, the company is very much focussed about whatever it does. Dushyant adds, “When we are doing memories business, we are doing only memories of Transcend, which requires proper support and understanding and we have that capability.” The plus point with the company is its human resources, which are six to eight years old and matured in understanding this business.

As far as Transcend memories are concerned, it has the whole range. Secondly, Bravish brand is quite rich in terms of breadth of products. Apart from this, Mediaman’s relationship with the channel partners is very healthy because the company believes in keeping commitments. The company has nearly 4,000 resellers across the country associated with it and it has physical presence in 35 locations. Besides, the company also sells to enterprise customers directly. Some of the names, which the company deals with, are highly regarded in the industry, including Tatas, Reliance, etc. Dushyant adds, “They prefer working with us as they understand our credibility.”

Vendors find real value in this distribution outfit as it has a very good reach and understanding of the products. The company also provides service to the customers with a turnaround time of 48 hours. To the channel partners, the company also gives some flexibility in terms of credit, which is of 15 days. So, in case one wants to be a channel partner of Mediaman, it is a good thing for him. But he should be prepared to evolve as per the requirements of the company. Secondly, he should fit into the criteria of Mediaman and should have the right mindset also. Mediaman will surely evaluate their current set- up, their logistic set-up and technical mindset, etc.

Finally…
As the products like MP3 players, flash cards and external drives are sold more in the retail shops, with the beginning of 2007, Mediaman starts focussing on the retail business. Therefore, this year the company will have 3,000 retail shops. Apart from that, the company never misses any opportunity of participating in roadshows. Dushyant adds, “We are present in 70–80 events across the country in a calendar year.”

The goal of the company is to be present in 150-plus cities by the end of 2008 and wants to grow 35–40 per cent this year. Definitely, they go deep into the country targeting C- and D-class cities. Secondly, the company has a definite plan to make the Bravish brand a very high-end technology brand.

Besides all these, the long-term goal of the company is to create something different. Maybe, they can enter into manufacturing in association with some manufacturers of global repute.