HITACHI FOCUSES ON RUSSIA FOR HARD DISK DRIVE GROWTH

Company Seeks to Double its Business in Russian Desktop and Enterprise Segments

With IT and PC spending forecasts outpacing other EMEA regions, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies sees the Russian market for hard disk drives as the number one growth opportunity in the region. To capitalize on this opportunity, Hitachi has increased resources for an aggressive push to extend its presence and sales volume in Russia’s desktop and enterprise hard disk drive segments According to IDC Q2 2006 data, Russia is number one in desktop PC disk drive volumes and number two in enterprise disk drive volumes in Europe.

This year, Hitachi is looking to double its sales volume compared to 2005, by leveraging key distribution partners, ASBIS and ELKO Group. Hitachi is stepping up its efforts to be a leading supplier and has added two seasoned channel sales professionals. Andrey Sostin and Ilya Klyuchnikov will lead the company’s sales strategies, develop relationships with distributors, resellers and OEM customers and drive further penetration for Hitachi’s hard disk drive products into the Russian desktop PC and enterprise segments. The company’s presence in Russia grew consistently quarter over quarter since 2005 in each of the segments, and with a new focused commitment, Hitachi seeks to continue this trend.

Hitachi will be embarking on a seven-city customer road show in September and October to engage with and educate regional customers on products and applications for hard disk drives. The road show will travel to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Samara, Krasnodar and Ekaterinburg.

In addition, Hitachi will step up efforts in branding, promotional and customer support activities in order to develop stronger ties with current and potential customers. Key initiatives include advertising in Russia-based channel and computing publications, Russian-language customer support and communications and an aggressive product reviews program with key media.

“The total available market in Russia for hard disk drives is quickly approaching or exceeding that of other major countries in the EMEA region. It’s an exciting time to be expanding our presence and adding resources in a country whose IT sector is burgeoning as Russia’s is,” said Nicolas Frapard, EMEA channel manager, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “With the leadership of Andrey and Ilya, our sales distribution infrastructure and our broad product portfolio, we look to achieve our goals and extend our leadership in the market.”

“Hitachi has become a very strategic partner for ASBIS over the past year, which has helped to increase our business at a very aggressive rate,” commented Laurent Journoud, executive vice president, sales and marketing for ASBIS. “We are looking forward to the additional presence and customer support activities that will help drive new business opportunities. With these efforts and Hitachi’s market-leading technology, we are confident of our continued successful relationship with Hitachi and further growth for both our businesses within Russia.”

“We have been operating in the Russian market for 11 years and added Hitachi hard drives to our portfolio in 2005. As a result of the relationship, and the dedicated and professional Hitachi team, we have increased our business and market share significantly,” says Jens Hartmann, chief executive officer of the pan-European ELKO Group. “With Hitachi’s additional resources in Russia, we are very confident we will assist in their aggressive growth plans.”