Lenovo and Epson unveil joint exclusive store in Siliguri

Lenovo Laptops and Epson Live Experience Zone gets a new home in Siliguri's Fame Computers. The store was launched in 15th January 2015. This retail outlet is the second one in line for retailers Rajesh Bhutra and Sitaram Bhutra who were proprietors for Crystal Technologies in Siliguri. They were into the business of cartridges and computer peripherals and have now entered into the sale of Lenovo and Epson products.

What is unique for Fame Computers is that it serves as an exclusive showroom for Lenovo with their laptops, desktops, and notebooks alongside being exclusive Epson Experience Zone similar to the one that opened in Kolkata at E-Mall in first week of December last year.

In an exclusive interaction with The DQWeek, Rajesh Bhutra, director, Fame Computers said that the area of the store is big enough to accommodate both the firms' products without any conflict. The store launch was graced by Satyajeet Satpathy, GM, North and East, Epson India and Tanmoy Chakraborty, regional manager, East and Bangladesh, Epson India who were impressed with the décor and outlook of the show and gave thumbs up to the arrangement.

According to Bhutra, the market is sluggish and the same is expected to continue till May this year. "This is slow quarter. We had expected growth in this quarter as we hadn't made business in the last one but the pace has not improved. Most of our business comes from the defense projects but government has ceased fund allocation for that. There is no procurement by the defense and hence we are facing the setback." However, the home users, individual consumers and tourism are still continuing preventing shops from shutting.

Even the online retailers are dampening the local Siliguri IT market which needs to be addressed by the OEMs and national distributors.

"They have to set a policy so that there is no conflict of interest. We cannot prevent anybody to sell products online but the rein lies in the hands of the OEMS and national distributors who have to devise a policy so that our demand in the market continues and we do not lose business. They will have to maintain maximum offer price (MOP) for their products," added Bhutra.