HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jason Siau, Heilind Electronics Senior Regional Sales Manager – South Asia Pacific, HK/JP/KR
A commitment to comply ahead and deliver customer satisfaction and retention, Heilind Electronics in a jiffy has ousted many other players in the distribution and service delivery space. The company has been the market-ruler in the Asia-Pacific region for its extensive and on-the-go inventory and distribution channel for Interconnect & Electromechanical Products. In an exclusive interview opportunity, Niloy Banerjee – Associate Editor, BisInfotechwitters with Jason Siau, Heilind Electronics Senior Regional Sales Manager – South Asia Pacific, HK/JP/KR. The extensive exchange panned across the company’s QoQ quantum growth and the company’s expansion and strategies for 2018 including India as a potential market. Excerpts.
1. Heilind has been snowballing at a very short span of time, what
are the key reasons for this major success in this growing competitive
market?
Heilind growth since our inception in mid-2012 was
attributed to our proven North American model as our differentiator to
this market. We also continue to invest in resources/people and adding
footprints/offices across major Asian cities to cater to our customers’
and suppliers’ requirement in this growing competitive market.
2. How Heilind comply in India and at large the APAC region in terms
of supply chain management, local presence and service offering etc.?
We
comply to our customers’ needs by setting up 3 warehouses in APAC region
(Hong Kong, Singapore & Suzhou) to cater to our customers’ needs on
their supply chain requirements, we also have local presence in major
cities in APAC to provide local sales support to our customers’ and in
India we have offices in Delhi and Bangalore to provide service and
support to our customers’
3. As a specialized distributor for Interconnect and
Electromechanical products, how does Heilind see the Indian market
growing in terms of demand and technology adoption?
India would
continue to be the magnet of growth and we are seeing our customers’
continued investment into the country, we think that India has to
balance itself and adapt to technology to cater for the divergence of
sectors that it has today and continues to change and adapt as the new
market grow while also maintaining the current sector growth.
4. Many companies have been cutting-down their direct sales and
marketing and have opted go-to-market strategies relying on franchised
distributors. What strategies and business model does Heilind practice
to streamline the complex supply chains of the OEMs?
Heilind
itself being a franchised distributor would benefit from suppliers that
prefer to rely on distributors as their go to market strategies , we
would continue to invest in resources and offices/warehouses that our
suppliers’ want us to be , we stock up for our customers’ to shorten
their lead time as well as providing value adding services such as
kitting, reeling & de-reeling and connector modifications as a service
to our customers’ to help them streamline their complex supply chains
issues.
5. What are the key sectors Heilind primarily focuses into and for
India what are the key offerings or market verticals?
We are
primarily focusing on the industrial sector in India and we aim to be
their “one stop shop” service provider for them on all their
interconnect requirements.
6. Heilind has been expanding at a quantum level, being the one of
the world’s leading authorized distributors of connectors, relays,
switches, thermal management & circuit protection products, how you see
the distribution market evolving over the years?
As a world
leading distributor of interconnect, relays, switches, thermal
management & circuit protection products , we are constantly seeing
their challenges and needs to provide better services and pricing plus
delivery to our customers. Distributors as the middle man must continue
to innovate and value add to the needs of the customers’, we must stay
ahead of competition and must be “Flexible” to the needs of both our
customers and suppliers in order to stay ahead in the market
7. How, trends like Industry 4.0 and digitalization has impacted the
distribution business model and how does the company stay ahead in this
vigorous changing market?
We are constantly adapting to changes
in the market and as a focus Interconnect products distributors; we have
products that can support trends such as Industry 4.0 and digitalization
as well as the whole spectrum of the markets.
8. Once it was the physical-ready inventory and products which were
the biggest assets but with e-tail business and digital marketing, data
is said to be the biggest asset? How is Heilind preparing for this
transformation?
Heilind always believes in having the
physical-ready inventory as its biggest asset, we are a stocking
distributor and we stock up in anticipation of the future demand. We
also invest in digital marketing and make our inventory data available
on the web to make it more accessible to the market.
9. Unlike other distributors, Heilind has been pioneering in the
interconnection and electromechanical market, is the company looking
into to expand or rather explore new verticals?
We are looking
into the sensor market and have added new lines such as Sensata
Technologies, Amphenol Sensors and TE connectivity Sensors to fuel this
growth in this market and we have also hire a Sensor Business
Development Manager to help explore into this new verticals.
10. What are the vital propositions Heilind looks into before singing
distribution agreements with new distributors?
Question 10, we
are distributor ourselves, so this question is not applicable to us.
11. Can you share an anecdote of Heilind’s last fiscal journey and
what growth expectation and strategies is the company looking into the
next fiscal year?
We have manage to outgrowth our own
expectation as well as that of our competition in the last fiscal year,
this year we are embarking of the Mil-Aerospace and Sensor verticals as
part of our growth strategies to continue to grow the company to the
next level
12. What is the key USP of Heilind which keeps them ahead in the
growing competitive market?
Our key USP would be to continue
Heilind’s forte in the distribution of Interconnect & Electromechanical
Products. We pride ourselves as a stocking distributor and we stock up
inventory to cater for our customers’ future needs. We have 3 warehouses
(Hong Kong, Singapore and Suzhou) to cater to our customers’ needs,
shorten suppliers’ lead-times and to ensure on time delivery to them in
different parts of Asia. We are also able to trade in US$ but also in
the customer’s currency of choice. Customers can also order/check
inventory online via our Estore for greater convenience.
13. Lastly, How important is Indian market for Heilind and how do it
foresee to expand in this bullish market?
India is a very
important market for us, we expect India to see double digit growth this
year and we would be expanding into more cities in India by adding new
offices and people.