How IT products distribution giant Ingram Micro’s India biz is shaping up

Ingram Micro, the world’s second largest distributor of technology products and services that competes with TD Synnex-backed Redington in India, continued with its third consecutive year of double digit growth in the country during FY23, after breaking out from a low growth trap prior to the pandemic.

The US-headquartered firm that is now owned by private equity firm Platinum Equity and has been in the process to go public again, grew its topline in India by 11.4% to ₹34,727.5 crore or around $4.2 billion for the year ended March 2023.

The growth was lower than 16.8% growth the previous year and 16.2% in the year prior to that, as per information compiled by data research platform VCCEdge.

This shows the revenue growth has slowed down but is still far better than the immediate years prior to the pandemic when the growth was in single digits.
In contrast, Redington, which is more than twice its size in India and counts Synnex as a strategic shareholder with nearly 25% stake, sped forward with over 27% growth in topline last year and is nearing the milestone of ₹1 trillion in revenue.
An email query to Ingram Micro India spokesperson did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this article.

Established in 1979, IMPL has evolved into a leading technology product distribution company in India, with a presence in over 40 locations nationwide with 15,000 channel partners, resellers, value-added resellers (VAR), sub-distributors, as well as direct and consumer marketers. The company reaches retail customers, small and medium businesses, and enterprise customers through this channel ecosystem.

While initially focusing on wholesale distribution of computer systems, peripherals, printers, networking solutions, computer storage systems, application software, and mobile phones and accessories, the company has recently made significant investments in cloud services. This includes offering value-added services and automated processes to efficiently deliver solutions to customers and provide substantial scale through the channel.

Today, IMIPL’s supplier list boasts some of the leading IT hardware and mobile phone manufacturers, networking equipment manufacturers and software publishers, including Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Intel, Juniper, Microsoft, Symantec, VM Ware and Western Digital, among others.

As digital transformation continues to impact industries, Ingram Micro India is implementing various strategic initiatives to remain relevant in the digital age. For instance, in 2021, IMPL added 300 technologists in India as it shifted from an e-commerce platform to an omni-channel experience provider.

It also introduced a digital experience platform called 'Xvantage' for its partners in September 2022. The platform integrates Ingram Micro's cloud marketplace, allowing for easy incorporation of cloud solutions into technology hardware, software, and professional services. This initiative aims to redefine how the distributor interacts with partners, vendors, and associates, providing them with digital tools, knowledge, and insights.

Notably, the Xvantage digital platform has attracted over 160,000 partners and approximately 1,500 vendor partners. The platform has been launched in the U.S, Germany, and India, with plans to expand to 10 countries by the end of this financial year.

IMPL is also simplifying the technology acquisition, deployment, and optimisation process, offering services from pre-configuration and customisation to end-to-end installation, configuration, deployment, optimisation, and post-implementation on-site support.