Heilind Always Believes In Having Physical-Ready Inventory as its Biggest Asset

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 Heilindpracticeto 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 u 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 applicableto 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.