Guillaume Rissoan is the General Manager of Lomit, the Italian branch of the HF Company Group, a specialist in digital peripherals for large-scale retail that exclusively distributes Metronic and Omenex in Italy.
How does the Italian market present itself and what are the prospects?Lomit, the Italian branch of the HF Company Group, specialist in digital peripherals in mass retail, distributes Metronic and Omenex in two well-distinguished markets: Metronic presents itself in the digital terrestrial and satellite TV reception market as the only brand capable of “democratizing” both the decoder market and their installation. With a unique range of receivers aimed at offering every user the most suitable product (foreigners/Italians, tech enthusiasts/budget-conscious, etc.) along with a range of accessories. Metronic puts the user and distribution in a position to always find the right assortment. The prospects for this market are huge: both because satellite, for sociological reasons, can only grow, and because the shift towards digital terrestrial technology is unstoppable. Omenex was the first brand after Apple and Archos to structure the MP4 market. Positioning itself in the second segment allows us to offer economical products without sacrificing quality and functionality. The Italian portable audio market is at a turning point where economic flows will quickly shift from MP3 to MP4. The development prospects for the market are good.What is the relationship consumers have with this market?In the TV reception market, unfortunately consumers have to “endure” distribution and media policies. In fact, the term “digital” is still tied to pay satellite, while the word has a much broader meaning. Consumers find an innovative product offering in Metronic. The Metronic payoff “Communication for everyone” reflects our company’s policy. Conversely, Omenex finds a much more “emancipated” clientele in the market who know, are informed, and have always had freedom of choice. The differentiation between the different offerings is very clear, even easier to understand. The world of digital audio is a world of freedom and consumers are able to make choices suitable to their own needs.What is the vision of Metronic/Omenex?The vision for Metronic and Omenex is unique: to liberate markets by informing and offering the best price to consumers eager for “human compatible” technology.Who is your typical customer?By operating in Mass Markets: we don’t have a single typical customer; we address a very broad target, segmenting our offer by model and price. For example, our range of digital terrestrial decoders starts at 29.90 euros with the low-cost model and reaches 199 euros for a model with HD 80 GB and two tuners. The range includes 8 products and is designed for every age group and every spending capacity.Who are your competitors?They are never enough: competitive pressure pushes us to always surpass ourselves. Italy is one of the big countries in the television industry: large and historic companies such as Cobra and Telesystem (mass retail), Fracarro, but also distributors and wholesalers (Cardmania, Mediasat), and, of course, the big CE brands (Philips, Samsung…). The portable audio market is more open as there are two types of companies: the historic brands (Apple, Samsung, Archos, Packard Bell) and a myriad of importers/wholesalers who can have occasional sales spikes and increase the market sales volume. Metronic and Omenex position themselves in the middle.What does Metronic/Omenex offer more compared to competitors present in Italy, why choose you?How many hours do we have? Just kidding, but it’s difficult to quickly sum up our “pluses” compared to many of our competitors. First of all, we take care of the “fundamentals” as they say in rugby: service rate, deliveries, and after-sales. Secondly, there is marketing: everything is designed to attract the customer with aggressive prices and to let them discover a world they didn’t know (different types of accessories, solutions, decoders, technologies). The customer must understand to choose well and be satisfied. This relationship between the brand and the end-user puts us in a position to know sell-outs in advance: mass retail loves certainty, and we provide it.What are the sector’s novelties?In the digital terrestrial market, the novelties are the new zapper for plasma (Zapbox Plug-In), the double tuner zapper (the only ones able to record a different program from the one being watched) and other still top-secret novelties. For satellite, we focus heavily on our kit with 3° monobloc LNB for receiving channels from the new Eurobird satellite and Hotbird. In the portable audio market, novelties are constant, especially in functionalities, in particular MP4 players with camera and Skype.How did last year go and what are your future objectives?I believe the year was difficult for everyone. Revenue growth will still be over 10%, which is a good result for us considering the current market situation. It’s an explosion given the market, but we are used to annual rates of 20% and above. Next year we expect this type of growth. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Pubblicato in Business, Video
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