Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
VingCard Elsafe, an international producer of hotel locking systems, electronic in-room safes and energy management systems, is strengthening its base in the mid-segment Goa hospitality market through its economy line of RFID locks, mini bars and safes and is targeting hotels with rooms as less as 40-50. Sumeet Sobti, managing director, Apex India, which was started by him and his brother Sameer Sobti and represents VingCard Elsafe in western India (Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh) stated, “We have been selling this economy line in Goa since two years and have done almost 10 hotels. Earlier we were selling only locks, but now we are selling locks, mini bars and safes as a package. We can sell this package to any hotel who sells a room above Rs 2000 per night. In this mid-segment, VingCard Elsafe has the potential to sell 500 locks by doing 10-12 projects every year and presently the total size of the market is double of that. We have two resident technicians in Goa to provide 24/7 hour support, which is a big USP for us.”
VingCard Elsafe has also launched a mobile access solution wherein its locks can be operated with mobile devices through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology thereby removing queuing for check-in and keycard encoding. Moreover, earlier this year, Apex India expanded into the kitchen equipment space by launching a kitchen vertical – Apex Kitchen Solutions – which represents various brands in this segment including, Hobart, Hoshizaki and Foster Refrigeration among others on a pan India basis.