John Tu, President and Co-Founder, Kingston Technology Company Inc born in Shanghai in 1941 earned a university degree in electrical engineering from the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany in 1970. John Tu emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1972 and now resides in Los Angeles County with his wife and their children. It has served as President of Kingston Technology Company since co-founding the company with Sun in 1987. Prior to Kingston, Tu served as President and Co-Founder of Camintonn Corporation, a company that provides board level products for the DEC marketplace. Tu was President of Camintonn from 1982 until 1986, when the company was sold to AST Research, of Irvine, CA. Tu stayed on with AST and served as Vice President and General Manager of the company's Digital Division until 1987.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Kingston designs, manufactures and distributes memory products for desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and Flash memory products for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. In 2009, the company's sales reached US$4.1 bn. Over the last 5 years, Kingston has ranked in the top 100 on Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Co’s. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs. Kingston is a globally accepted brand delivering over 1mn units per day that are distributed across 110 countries and are available in over 30,000 locations worldwide
Speaking with Yash Ved of IIFL, John Tu says, "We are planning to invest in Indian market over the next 2-3 years."
How do you see the memory market?
The memory market saw some recovery last year like many other industries. Kingston benefited from the general rise in DRAM and Flash prices.
We also expanded our product line when we entered the SSD market at the beginning of 2009. Within 12 months we have gained a strong foothold in this burgeoning area.
What are your expansion plans?
Kingston has its Far East headquarters in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan and its EMEA headquarters in Sunbury, England. With three Regional Headquarters, Kingston is able to serve an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on 6 continents.
The upcoming market is China, South America, Brazil and Ukraine.
We are also planning to invest in the Indian market over the next 2-3 years.
How many manufacturing facilities do you have?
We have our manufacturing facilities in California, Taiwan, China, and Malaysia. Sales representatives in the United States, Taiwan, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and Latin America.
Brief us about your new product lines?
Kingston has developed the DDR3 triple-channel, Intel-certified memory. Running at 2333MHz, Kingston’s HyperX triple-channel DDR3 memory kit gained Intel XMP certification on the Core i7 platform. The 2333MHz kit runs at 9-11-9-27 timings at 1.65 volts. Kingston achieved the feat on an X58 system consisting of the Intel Core i7-980X processor and ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard.
The company has announced it is shipping a 64GB SDXC UHS-1 Class 10 memory card. SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) is the next standard from the Secure Digital Association (SDA) for SD cards with storage ranging from more than 32GB up to 2TB.
SDXC cards, in addition to larger capacities allow for exponentially faster data transfer rates while maintaining the popular SD form factor. The company has also announced the release of an entry-level line of HyperX memory modules for overclockers and gamers. The HyperX ‘blu’ memory modules have a new look, run at standard JEDEC speeds and timings, and have headroom for enthusiasts to push the performance envelope.
Tell us about Aforeserve.com Ltd.?
Aforeserve.com Ltd. offers warranty outsource with over 47 direct offices in India. It has been appointed by us to manage the after-sales support and service programs for all consumers in India.
We have announced a comprehensive product warranty and support policy for its products in India.
Give is a break-up of your revenue from various segments?
Kingston’s global revenues in 2009 reached US$4.1bn, a US$100mn increase over 2008. This modest increase was attributed to a rise in average selling price, healthier demand from corporate and consumers, besides the company's entry into the Solid-state drive (SSD) market. The company is expecting 40-50% growth in revenue for FY2010-11.
The 2009 revenue figure marks Kingston’s second-highest grossing year since beginning operations in October 1987. Kingston’s highest-grossing year was in 2007, with revenues of US$4.5 bn. Kingston first reached the US$1bn mark in global sales in 1995, surpassing it with US$2bn in 2004 and US$3bn in 2005.
Brief us about your marketing strategy?
Kingston Technology has created a high impact, dramatic campaign for the brand. Our strategy is to use large formats to build impact and smaller formats to ensure reach.
Brief us about your ‘I CAN’ campaign?
Six Inches Communications, a leading creative and integrated marketing company has launched a new campaign for Kingston. The campaign spans print and outdoor media with an aim of engaging the youth by highlighting the power of self belief. The campaign strategically crafted by Six Inches, explains this coming May, the town will be painted in the colours of confidence with Kingston’s latest ‘I CAN’ campaign.
The campaign aims to position Kingston as a brand that inspires trust. The idea is a flawless fit for Kingston, as it is the world leader in memory products, and has gained a sizeable market share in India in 2009 and aims to further its success in 2010. The contemporary look and bold statement of ‘I CAN’ makes the communication effective on the whole and establishes a deep connect with the audience.