Naveen Rakhecha, CEO, South Asia, Cartridge World on Comapny's Expansion and Channel plans...

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Understanding the vast opportunities in Indian cartridge market, Cartridges World, the retailer of printer cartridge refilling services, plans to open 250 retail stores by 2011. While talking to IT VAR News, Naveen Rakhecha, CEO, South Asia, Cartridge World, gives an insight of the companys entire expansion and channel plans.

ITVN: How do you see cartridges market in India?

NR: The cartridge refilling and remanufacturing business is growing at brisk pace. Globally the printer cartridges industry is said to be about a USD 101 Bn opportunity. In India, the industry estimates reflect that printer consumables are a Rs. 2500+ Crore opportunity growing at over 30% YOY with no saturation point in view in the distant future. A distinct need-gap existed in the Indian market. There was a need for OEM quality in affordable price option. This is where Cartridge World brings its offering to the customers. Cartridge W

orld is offering 100% money back guarantee on refills with OEM like performance at a fraction of the cost.

ITVN: What is the expected growth in the year 2009? How do you see the unorganized sector involve in selling cartridges?

NR: The Indian market was polarized. OEMs were offering quality at a high price and the largely unorganized refill market was offering cheap but poor quality alternatives. Ink which is an engineered product was being treated as coloured water and cartridges as dumb containers. Quality suffered because of use of generic raw material and process. Cartridge World offers OEM quality at an affordable price to its customers.

India is tipped to become the largest Internet using country in the world by 2010. This will further boost the printer and printer cartridges industry; after all 61% of printing activity is globally attributed to the Internet.

One might see the gradual p

hasing out of the unorganized segment as cartridges continue to become more and more intelligent. Scientific processes, raw material and use of technology will become a necessity for the aftermarket industry to overcome the barriers. This will call for substantial investments to be made by all players in the market. Growth in color cartridges is imperative. This will also sound the death knell for use of generic raw material and processes.

ITVN: How retail store helping you to reach the huge customer base across India? What are your retail plans and strategy in coming days? Where you are planning your new venture?

NR: Currently we have 48 stores operating successfully across 23 cities in India namely at Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Ranchi, Guahati, Indore,Bhopal, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Hubli, Cochin, Coimbatore, Vizag. Soon we will

be opening our 50th store and spreading across many more cities in India.

We are planning to make our presence stronger in all Tier I, II&III cities in India and enter the Tier I cities in Sri Lanka&Nepal in the year 2009 2010.We aim to open 250 retail stores of Cartridge World by 2011 across the Indian sub-continent.

ITVN: What criteria and quality you will be looking while appointing new partners?

NR: We are looking for committed and passionate partners who together with us carry forward the mission to provide the best sales and service package on the supply of consumables and printers, and provide information to the consumer on the benefits of recycling.

We look for the following attributes in our franchisees:
Ability to invest in the project and desire to succeed Willingness to learn and spend time in developing the business Willingness to educate and bring about the c

hange in the neighbourhood Penchant for quality and belief in nothing but the best Concern for the people and environment
ITVN: Explain briefly about your upcountry plans as well SMB market plan?

NR: We had taken upon ourselves to bring about a change. Being a change agent is challenging and at the same time extremely rewarding. We already have presence in cities like Varanasi, Hubli, Ranchi and will continue opening stores as per the potential of the city and when we find a right partner.

Our strategy for SME market is to Educate, Communicate and Demonstrate. "We are targeting emerging business verticals across SMEs, such as pathology laboratories, export houses, jewellery designing houses, photo studio and stores, etc. Besides expanding our SME user base, we will also tap cash-strapped corporate, government, retail, healthcare and education segments that are increasingly looking for our solutions. We

use our retail stores, neighbourhood marketing programs, school recycling partnerships etc. to promote cartridge reusing and refilling.

ITVN: What is your marketing strategy to tap the vast consumer needs?

NR: Trial is the starting point and education induces trial. Key to effective education is one to one interaction with customers. Our franchisee model ensures that we have a change agent who is adept at such a role, who is a local, understands locals; being one from within them and communicates with them in the local language. Local face backed by a global reputation is reassuring. This ensures that we are able to effectively able to reach out to individual customers personally.