Wednesday, February 19, 2014: Samtec, a leading service and support provider in the global electronics interconnect industry, was founded in 1976 in the US. While it manufactures new products every six months, customisation is its main strength.
“There has always been a demand for connectors, and now, with more expansion and investments in the electronics industry, we foresee a rise in demand not only for the next two years, but even beyond that period,” says N Ravindra Kumar, director, Samtec, in a conversation with Srabani Sen of Electronics Bazaar. Hence, Samtec aims to increase its sales in India based on the strengths of the company.
EB: How did Samtec do in India in 2013?
We did good business in India in 2013. Our turnover was US$ 3 million as on November 2013. In 2014, we are expecting a better performance. We have fared better in sectors like industrial automation, medical, defence and aerospace, and our high speed connectors, high speed cable assemblies, power connectors and related cable assemblies were much in demand.
EB: What are your goals for 2014?
We are targeting a turnover of US$ 6 million and aim to retain our No 1 ranking by Bishop & Associates, for support in the interconnect industry. We will try to reach out to as many customers as we can through direct marketing, the electronic media, exhibitions and seminars.
We will retain our pricing for 2013 and will not make any changes until it is really required.
EB: What are your business strategies for 2014?
We will review our growth every quarter and try to get feedback from customers regarding our failures. This will help us to find solutions to these issues, and in turn, serve the customers even better.
Most of our customers are design houses so we will keep an eye on the technological trends and make our products more suitable for the changes in applications. We will also explore new areas in 2014, and tap sectors like automotive, LED lighting and fibre optics. This year, we will expand our direct sales team, which will be responsible for developing new customers.
EB: Do you see a rise in demand for connectors in the electronics industry in the coming two years?
There has always been a demand for connectors, and now, with more expansion and investments in the electronics industry, we foresee a rise in demand not only for the next two years but beyond that period too. Tech parks, as well as hardware and R&D hubs are coming up in different states, and this is due to the infrastructure facilities available at subsidised rates, and due to the investments by different states and companies. For example, AMD and ARM have announced their plans to set up new R&D centres in Hyderabad. Intersil Corporation has announced that it has opened a new design centre in Bengaluru. The Karnataka government has announced its own electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) policy. A brownfield cluster is coming up in Bengaluru. These developments will increase the demand for our products significantly.
EB: Within the electronics industry, which sectors do you see demand for your connectors coming from?
As our connectors cater to most of the sectors, we see the demand coming from the industrial automation, power, defence, solar energy, LED, embedded systems, aerospace, medical and automotive sectors.
EB: What is unique about Samtec’s connectors?
Our connectors are compact, reliable, cost-effective and offer more technical solutions. We have niche products and also provide equivalent parts/cross references so that customers can easily switch over to Samtec products. We provide free samples for testing and evaluation purposes. We do not have a minimum order quantity for most of the parts, hence our customers are not stuck with unwanted inventory. We also offer free freight on a case to case basis, and the best delivery time, as we hold raw materials in stock.
We also ship directly to customers from our manufacturing location to save time; this is known as ‘drop shipment on urgency’.
Our field application engineers (FAEs) are appointed by Samtec directly, hence we have control over the sales and technical support. The FAEs are trained overseas. We support the customers right from their design stage, and customise as per their requirements. We call it application specific products (ASP). About 25-30 per cent of our business is generated this way.
EB: What are the standards that Samtec’s connectors comply with?
Our products are approved by UL and Canadian Standards Association on request. Some of our connectors are ELP (extended life products) tested for 10 years, for mixed flowing gas.
EB: What type of challenges do you face in India? And how do you overcome them?
A common challenge in India is pricing. Usually customers ask for discounts. We are very open and our prices are available on our website. We offer slab pricing, which is based on factors like volume of business. On a case to case basis, we try to review the prices and offer the customer a better pricing.
EB: Do you manufacture in India? If not, are there any plans to do so in the near future?
No, we do not manufacture in India, but we have six manufacturing locations across the globe. We are interested in setting up a manufacturing unit in India as well, but only when the Indian laws become more favourable for foreign investments and help India to grow like China.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine
