As part of our series titled ‘Global Trade Opportunities’ where we feature international firms that are looking forward to do business in India, Anurag Gaur from electronicsforu.com spoke to William Chang, head of corporate marketing, Chroma ATE about their business strategy in India.
Chroma ATE Inc., founded in 1984 and headquartered in Taiwan, is a leading own brand supplier of automatic testing equipment (ATE). Chroma’s mission is to provide turnkey test and automation solutions with precision, reliability, and uniqueness for technology industries. The focal points of Chroma are tests and measurements on power electronics, passive components, electrical safety, video and colour, LCD/LCM, automotive electronics, and semiconductor industries. More importantly, Chroma also drives itself toward clean technology by providing testing solutions in photovoltaic, LED, Li-battery, power battery pack, electric vehicles and other emerging new eco-industries.
SEPTEMBER 2012: Q. Please give us an overview of Chroma ATE.
A. Chroma ATE aims to become a world-class enterprise by delivering global leading test and measurement products with precision, reliability and uniqueness. To ensure its leading technology, Chroma devotes significant amount of investment and resource in research and development (R&D) every year. Chroma is a world-leading supplier of automatic testing equipment (ATE), including electronic tests and measurement equipment and systems, for various ICT industries. Chroma also provides integrated and customised turnkey solutions through test and measurement instruments, automatic test systems and manufacturing execution systems.
Our revenue for 2011 was $178 million and our consolidated revenue for the same year was $471.7 million. Numerous patents have been applied and granted for innovative technologies to sustain the company’s future growth and leading competitive advantages. Core technologies in power electronics, optics, and manufacturing execution system (MES) have been the cornerstones for Chroma to move forward to various new frontiers by delivering innovative test solutions to satisfy our customers’ up-coming demands. The company has a number of engineering service offices worldwide, including United States, Europe and Japan, for clients’ services and supports.
Q. How do you see India as a market for Chroma ATE’s products and services?
A. Our products are aimed at the general IT market and green energy field. For the general IT market, India is a fast developing country so it might need a lot of internal and basic inquiries for the consumer issues like 3C, home appliance, public/private power system and communication. And the test and measurement instruments are playing a vital part in supporting the manufacturers for testing the items mentioned above. Therefore, this is the key point why we want to expand the test and measurement market in India.
Now coming to green energy field, we realise that the energy topic is quite hot worldwide especially because of the rising oil prices. So our basic global goal is to find sources of renewable energy and an energy-saving solution. Chroma had started accessing the test and measurement for green energy industries about six years ago. Currently we have unique test solutions for PV (solar), EV (electric vehicle), LED and Li-battery industries. We do believe that this direction will soon be applied in the Indian market, which would become our target market.
Q. Out of the range of products and services that you deal in, what are the kind of products that you feel find more takers in India?
A. I believe test and measurement equipments for 3C, home appliance, power supply, and PV should be well received in India.
Q. Please share your go-to-market strategy with regard to the Indian market?
A. When our products have fulfilled most of the test and measurement requirements in the R&D/lab usage, we will move to the production line application, and then to provide turnkey test and measurement solutions for the Indian market.
For example, for power supply manufacturers, Chroma can provide the test equipments from IQC, assembly, burn-in, FQC, bench etc. which can be performed by single-box instrument, integrated system or ATS (automated test system), and in-line automation, with MES (manufacturing execution system) supported.
Q. Where all is your company present in India?
A. Currently the company has appointed two distributors–Quantel and Mel Systems, to promote our products in India. Our offices are located in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, and Delhi. However, if anyone wants to contact us directly, they can touch base with Phil Liu in Taiwan.
Q. Are you open to partnering with distributors and system integrators in India?
A. Currently we will continue with the same structure of two distributors as we prefer direct sales more than something like e-sales. The reason being that our product requires technical training.
Q. What are the challenges that you have faced and foresee in India?
A. India has a large geographic territory. The people, the culture, and the way of doing business in each area is slightly different. The people here are diverse with a varied set of needs and demands; therefore it becomes very difficult to adjust to their requirements. But since it is a hot market, we would love to find ways to overcome these obstacles.
Q. What have been your marketing initiatives to generate more business in the country?
A. Our local distributors participate in two-four exhibitions every year based on electronics and green energy topics. As we plan to expand our business in India, we be would attending more expositions in the near future.
