The heat''s on for cool distribution

An efficient dealer and retail network is necessary to widen the geographical reach of a company's products. These networks are also needed to provide prompt after-sales service, an important component to enhancing brand loyalty.

Amtrex has established a definite edge over its competitors. It has set up more than 362 distributors in 116 towns across the country. It further plans to cover 300 towns (mainly class C cities) through 1,035 dealers in the next few years. Moreover, its policy is to create separate distribution channels for customised servicing of its different segments.

Voltas has managed to revitalise and revamp its distribution network. Since 1998, it has a network of about 400 dealers. Carrier has a 360-plus dealer network. This includes 55 Comfort Points of which 40 are dealer-owned and 12 are company-owned. There are three mobile Comfort vans that cover the satellite townships of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

Carrier has also invested significantly in developing its after-sales servicing network. It has set up a training institute in Gurgaon, Haryana, to train company and dealer service teams. In order to encourage a culture of professionalism, the company insists that the service personnel sport uniforms and are equipped with pagers, cellphones, fully stocked toolkits and gloves during working hours. Besides all this, the technicians are trained to use drop sheets at the clients' premises to maintain cleanliness. The company has also begun providing 24-hour service at selected locations.

Videocon, with its already established network for consumer durables will use it for its room ACs. It will thus gain an advantage of synergy.