Are manufacturers becoming retailers?

New site in India to serve Asia's growing water-purification

Pentair's Water Technologies Group has launched an e-commerce web site to increase its water purification business in the rapidly-growing economies of Asia.

The web site, called e-watershop India, is designed to be an electronic store for Pentair's water products. It also serves as a reference source for helpful information about the importance of clean, potable water to consumers, public health agencies, and industry. The site presents a wide range of products that can be ordered directly from the web site and are increasingly in demand for water treatment and purification applications in India and other expanding economies in Asia.

As more manufacturers embrace the Internet as a new sales channel, it may become increasingly difficult to differentiate manufacturers from online retailers.

Pentair has a major manufacturing facility in Goa that serves the Indian market and also exports products to the United States and Europe. The company said the new web site will serve its existing customers more effectively and efficiently, while broadening its customer base in India and other Asian countries.

"With economies rapidly expanding, the need for purified water is growing exponentially throughout Asia," said Richard J. Cathcart, president of Pentair's Water Technologies Group. 

Pentair's water purification components, such as water softener valves, pressure tanks, filters, pumps, and reverse osmosis membranes and housings are offered on the web site. They are purchased by companies in India to assemble water-treatment equipment that is sold to businesses and institutions requiring pure water for day-to-day operations, such as hospitals, hotels, soft-drink bottlers, software-component manufacturers and other producers of high-technology products.

Expecting strong initial success of e-watershop India, Pentair is planning to launch a second e-watershop in the fall of 2000 to serve Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia, a region that the company believes offers an even larger potential for growth because of the expanding need for pure water. The web site, e-watershop Asia, will be available to customers in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and English. This site will support a new distribution center the company will open in Taiwan this fall. 

Cathcart said Pentair also plans to open an e-commerce web site in Italy to expand business for the Water Technologies Group in Europe. This site will complement a major distribution center that Pentair operates in Milan. It will offer products and services in several languages to meet the needs of customers throughout Europe. The site, e-watershop Europe, is expected to be operational by the end of the year.

Other manufacturers around the world are beginning to wake up to the possibilities of utilizing the Internet as their own shop front, utilizing the same technology that has helped so many eRetailers bring their business concepts to life on the Web.

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08/08/00 SOURCE: Pentair, Inc.