Surge of techies gives Ng Khai a rosy outlook

As consumers get more and more technology savvy, Ng Khai Development Corporation is seeing an upbeat business outlook in the coming years for both retail and corporate accounts.

Ng Khai, so far the largest IT solutions distributor in Southern Philippines, is planning to expand its retail arm, the NGenius chain of IT stores, in the Visayas and Mindanao areas.

The company likewise plans to open more concept stores in Cebu in the next few months.

In a press conference, Ng Khai executive vice president Melanie Ng said that although product and service takeup in the corporate market is growing at a significant rate due to the adoption of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in technology, retail market on the other hand is doubly growing.

“There are a lot of technology gadgets deployed in the market right now that are much affordable than it used to when it first came out. This has triggered the active market takeup for technology products and service in the retail market,” she said.

However, she said because of the upbeat market interest in technology, competition has become stiffer now, thus, profitability is affected and IT products and services distributors are now getting a thinner profit margin.

“Volume takeup is rapidly growing, but we have to get use of the thinning profit margin because of competition,” she said.

The war of technology distributor business now is more on offering the best value added services for their consumers.

According to Ng, the company which is now celebrating its 15th year, is looking at expanding its retail network outside of Cebu, especially in the Mindanao market, to answer the clamor from Mindanao customers.

In Cebu, the company will leverage on its concept store expansion, as it is set to open the first Lenovo concept store in SM Cebu cyberzone.

Already, Ng Khai has partnered with HP for the establishment of two HP concept stores in Cebu, which were opened last year. —Ehda M. Dagooc