Lenovo restructures national consumer distribution system

Lenovo, one of India’s leading PC players, has announced the restructuring of its national distribution system (Tier 1 distributors) across India. The new structure will align each of the T1 distributors with Lenovo’s four distinct verticals: Lenovo Exclusive Stores (LES), Multi-brand stores, Regional Distributors and Large Format Retail.

Lenovo historically had taken the lead a few years back in having a 1:1 aligned model of billing between RDs and T1 partners. This new structure will take this aligned model to its next level for more focus on each vertical.

Shailendra Katyal, Director, Home and Small Business (HSB), Lenovo India, said, “The new T1 structure is a significant step towards developing a best-in-class partner system for Lenovo in India. We are confident that this new distribution structure will further strengthen our engagement with our T2 business partners. Each of these verticals has distinct product and sales patterns and aligning our national distributors to service verticals in a focussed way will ensure better end-to-end serviceability for our channel partners”

The new structure has been designed to create an ecosystem, where Lenovo and the T1 partners will address the distinctive needs of the different verticals in a focused manner. This transition will give a dedicated channel base to the T1 partners where they can invest and value-add for growth on these accounts. It allows T1s to move beyond credit and fulfilment to having a more growth oriented approach by having better end-to-end inventory alignment and product evangelism with T2 partners.

Along with this restructuring, Lenovo also announced some other recent initiatives viz

·         Creation of a new class of RDs which would be fulfilled directly by Lenovo.

·         A strategic partnership with HCL Infosystems Ltd. to further strengthen its consumer retail business by leveraging over 100 HCL exclusive store-fronts

·         Appointment of Rx Infotech P Limited as additional T1 for select markets for distribution of S&P products

Katyal said, “We are bullish about the near to medium term growth prospects in the consumer business and are taking these structural measures to enhance our reach and servicing of channel in India”.