V&D 100 Awards

MRO TEK - 'The Prince of Channels'

For a man who dreams big and has the courage to take risks, no achievement is big. No wonder then that S Narayanan made the company focus clearly on serving the ever growing channels, and successfully made MRO Tek the largest distributor of networking products in the country. Also MRO-Tek became the first networking and access products company in the country to get listed on the Indian bourses. That too at a time when the investor confidence was not at its peak. The company registered a turnover of Rs 127 crore. The 'prince of channels' is the `king of digital modems' too. The company accounts for 60 percent of the total digital modem market, and a dominant position in the multiplexer market. The key to success for MRO-Tek comes from the mantra which helps it position itself as a local manufacturer of well-suited products for both the Indian and SAARC markets. This traditional box vendor has done exceedingly well for itself, and is now seriously eyeing to be a solutions provider.

Factsheet

CEO: S Narayanan
Area of Operation: Networking products manufacturing and value added distribution
Address: 14, Ist D main, Ganganagar, Bangalore-560 032
Tel: 080-3332951/3330878
Fax: 080-3333415
Web site: www.mro-tek.com

SWOT

STRENGTH

Strong manufacturing base with the engineering skills to make value-added products suiting to the needs of the regional environment

WEAKNESS

Not seen as a total solutions provider

OPPORTUNITY

Indian, SAARC and African markets

THREAT

Big time vendors

For MRO-Tek FY 2000-01 has been significant on two counts. One, it dared to be the first networking and access solutions company in the country to get listed on the Indian bourses. Two, it became the largest value-added distributor of networking products in the country with a total business of Rs 127 crore. Carrying RAD, Zyxel, Extreme, Globaloop, it did total RAD branded product sales worth Rs 108.03 crore, Zyxel sales of Rs 9.70 crore, Extreme sales worth Rs 5.50 crore, and the rest on account of Globaloop, cobalt.

It is the unanimous digital modem king in the country. With a total sales of Rs 81 crore in digital modems, the company today accounts for 60 percent of the total digital modem market. And again in the access multiplexers market it has the second largest market share after Alcatel�s revenue of Rs 26.50 crore. If it were not for the delay in policy guidelines by the government and certain customers, it would have done still better.

The success for MRO-Tek comes because of its positioning as a local manufacturer of well-suited products for the India and the SAARC markets. The key strength of MRO has been its engineering skills and a host of LAN-WAN solutions. In fact, manufacturing accounts for over 40 percent of its total revenue and this figure is going to be very high in the coming years.