Brother India Prioritizes Quality Over Low Price: Aims for Market Share Growth

New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) Japanese electrical equipment maker Brother International (India) prioritises quality and value over low-end products that compromise on performance, managing director Alok Nigam said on Thursday.

In an interaction with PTI, Nigam said even the most affordable products in Brother's portfolio offer high-quality specifications, and the company will never compromise on quality to compete with its market peers.

"It is very easy to be lowest price company, but then, low price comes with certain kinds of compromises, and that is something which is not in the DNA of Brother. We would rather give good quality, and give it at affordable pricing. We will never aim to be the lowest price player just by making some kind of specification compromises," he said at the launch of the company's line-up of 17 printers.

Nigam said it is the company's confidence in the quality of its products that differentiates the company from other players in the market.

"We know very clearly and we have this experience, that whether our market share is low or high, whichever country we are in, including India, the users who have used Brother, become ambassadors for Brother products. And that's the thing which we want to really preserve and cultivate," he said.

Brother International (India), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Brother International Corporation, Japan, debuted the India market in 2006. With its head office in Mumbai, and six other regional offices, it has 240 employees in India. It has three major business segments in India: printing, labelling and solutions, and home and embroidery.

Nigam further added that the company is equally focussed on serving both B2B and B2C customers. Brother aims to cater to diverse customer segments with its product portfolio spanning across all price slabs, he said.

"We are very clearly focused on both the segments, because both the users are having different requirements, and we have product range for both," he said.

The company has seen 19 times growth in the past 17 years, and is optimistic of increasing its market share in the upcoming years, Nigam said.

"Our share in the printing market, for the mono laser series is about 15 per cent in India. In ink tank, it is about 7-8 per cent and this is what we want to change -- the dynamics. We will have a far bigger growth in ink tanks. Our next three years plan is to take it up to 25 per cent share in ink tanks, and up to 35 per cent share on the mono laser side," he said.

He informed that coolers for forklift workers are on the anvil for the company.

The company on Thursday launched a line-up of 17 new printers, which it said are "designed to improve the productivity of SOHO (small office, home office), SMB (small and medium business) and corporate segments".

"We are happy to introduce a wide range of 17 printers to the Indian customer that cater to the ever changing need of having the best of printing technology at an affordable price. With these new single functions and multifunction printers, Brother International is offering cost-effective printing solutions that boost business productivity without any compromise," Nigam said.