Toshiba, a global leader in storage solutions, empowers businesses and consumers with innovative, reliable, and high-capacity hard drives tailored for today’s digital-first world. During an exclusive interaction with NCN Magazine, Mr. Polad Garda, Country Head, Toshiba India; and Mr. Chintamani. V. Kuber, Shatakshi Automation, share insights on market shortages, rising prices, supply challenges, and growing demand in surveillance and enterprise storage solutions.
How is the market with shortages and rising prices?
The market at this moment is clearly facing a demand-supply imbalance. Demand is strong across categories, but supply allocation is limited. This has naturally created a shortage in the market, and prices are increasing at multiple levels. We are facing a tough situation because we have strong partner commitments and requirements to fulfill, but the allocation from the supply side is lower than expected.
With high demand, how is Toshiba ensuring availability?
We are working aggressively to manage the situation as best as possible. While we may not be able to fulfill 100% requirements currently, we are ensuring that at least 40% to 50% of the overall demand is met consistently. Even though the situation is challenging, we are making sure our channel partners remain supported and confident in the Toshiba ecosystem.
At this point, partners expect continuity and stability, and we have to honor their loyalty. So the effort from our side is to balance the requirement and allocation and ensure our partners are not left behind.
Will prices drop soon or stay high long-term?
From what we are observing and from our best industry understanding, prices are not going to fall anytime soon. Many partners have skepticism and fear that prices might reduce quickly, but in reality, this seems to be a longer-term trend, not a short-term spike.
In fact, I believe this entire year will continue to remain under price pressure. So it is important for partners to stay focused, stay invested, and be careful while giving quotations. Partners should also protect margins wherever possible, because stability will take time to return.
How will price hikes impact categories across the market?
We will see price impact across categories because it’s a demand supply scenario. There is price increase happening at multiple levels—manufacturing, logistics, components, and allocation. Every category is feeling the impact.
From Toshiba’s side, we are trying our best to remain economical and realistic. We are balancing the ambition to stay aggressive in the market while also managing the increasing cost requirement. But the industry overall will be impacted from a price point of view.
How is Toshiba balancing growing surveillance storage demand today?
Surveillance is definitely a fast-growing segment and one of the most important markets for Toshiba. At present, the surveillance market is moving towards STQC implementation, and we are seeing increasing requirements. Many brands are entering the market with cameras and surveillance solutions, and storage becomes the backbone of that entire ecosystem.
At the same time, price pressure is impacting surveillance too, because everyone wants to increase prices due to supply constraints. Still, we are trying to provide the most economic pricing possible for our partners so that adoption doesn’t slow down.
What is your view on year-end government project demand surge?
We are entering the financial year-end, and government requirements rise sharply during this phase. We are seeing strong demand coming from government projects, public sector initiatives, and institutional requirements.
However, System Integrators (SIs) are facing two major struggles—availability and financing. Due to increasing prices, SIs feel pressure while closing deals, and funding becomes challenging for them. We understand this reality and are supporting with economic pricing and stable supply planning.
How important is Toshiba’s partnership with Shatakshi Automation in Pune?
Shatakshi Automation has been a valuable enterprise partner for Toshiba in Pune. We have been participating with them regularly, and we are happy with the way they are creating opportunities for enterprise business.
They have done a great job in increasing business visibility and delivering solutions in the market. This year too, we are participating again with them. Such partnerships strengthen the ecosystem and help us scale enterprise presence with confidence.
What is your message to channel partners in tough times?
This is a tough time, no doubt. But partners should not panic. Prices won’t fall very soon. Stay focused, stay invested, and quote carefully. Ensure margin protection. Together, we can manage this phase and continue building strong growth.
Mr. Chintamani. V. Kuber, Shatakshi Automation
What made Shatakshi Automation choose Toshiba for storage and NAS solutions?
We work deeply in storage and NAS solutions, and after integrating Toshiba into our solutions, the response has been tremendous. Toshiba is the number one brand in many areas—especially reliability, recovery performance, speed, and durability.
When a customer invests in storage, they want peace of mind. Hard disk is the heart of the data structure. If anything goes wrong in storage, customers become extremely stressed. That’s why performance and durability matter the most, and Toshiba delivers strongly.
What specific Toshiba strengths help you in solution bundling?
First is performance. We are offering 7200 RPM drives, and most models come with 5-year warranty. That itself builds customer trust. Second is pricing—Toshiba gives excellent and aggressive pricing along with availability.
Third is service. Service support is very important for solution partners like us. Toshiba provides fantastic service support during technical issues—arrangements, replacements, and guidance. That makes our work easier and increases customer satisfaction.
How important is Toshiba external HDD range in portfolio?
Toshiba external HDD is hugely popular. We maintain a total range of Toshiba external drives. It supports both enterprise and consumer demand.
So my humble request to system integrators and partners is—if you want to propose storage solutions, please approach us. We can provide the right Toshiba solution, and it will help partners grow their customer base and increase profit.
How has Toshiba helped Shatakshi Automation grow business?
Business has become double after using Toshiba in our storage solutions. When customers are happy and satisfied, business automatically grows.
Also, technical support and RMA support from Toshiba is very strong. Whenever we need help, Toshiba team supports quickly. That strengthens our service delivery and builds trust. It’s growing like anything.
Covered By: NCN MAGAZINE / Toshiba
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