INTEGRAL MEMORY PROFILE
Memory master
Sunil Kotecha spotted a developing trend in the memory market back in the late 1980s and took a risk to capitalise on it. Thirty-five years later, he and his business, Integral Memory, continue to be at the cutting edge of the memory sector.
Back in the late 1980s, Sunil Kotecha, then a product manager for an IT business, saw a lot of Korean companies entering the UK computer memory market. He saw the potential of then little-known companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai and the high quality, high spec and competitively priced products they were offering, little suspecting they would lead to him setting up a successful business. Sunil went to his bosses saying they should work with these companies, but in a move that ultimately turned out well for Sunil, the bosses decided to stick with the established players and not stock the upstarts from the Far East. Despite that rejection, Sunil was undeterred. He later approached Samsung’s UK arm – which was then one person in an office in Brentford – to be a distributor for them. They agreed, and thus Just RAMS was born, with £4,000 Sunil had saved up. Decision vindicated “I could see Samsung had invested huge amounts in manufacturing and R&D and that they were likely to be coming through with new products,” says Sunil. “So, we set up Just RAMS as a specialist in memory.” It was a risk that turned out to be very well judged. Sunil’s belief that the market would embrace memory products from Samsung and others was soon vindicated. In the company’s first year, 1989, the company turned over £1 million, which rose to £4 million in 1993 and by 1996 – by which time Samsung was a world leader in computer memory – it was £30 million. At the time, the market and memory products were developing quickly and Sunil ensured the company remained at the cutting edge of the technology. “In those days every PC or laptop had their own
specially designed memory, there was no standard,” he remembers. “So, we started having competitive products, but at far lower prices that could be installed as upgrades for these computers. We went from becoming a PC company, selling to PC assemblers, to becoming an upgrade solutions company. And we still do this today.” As the company grew, its product range expanded into providing solutions for state- of-the-art servers through to legacy PCs as they had hundreds of memory modules in stock. In 1999, a new type of memory came out called Flash which did not lose its memory when switched off. This created a new market and the first product that came out was called Smart Media, a flash product for digital cameras, replacing film. USB drives were also developed around this time allowing data to be moved between devices. “We were one of the first manufacturers to embrace these technologies, which created a new consumer market with retailers now becoming key customers," says Sunil. Integral born By this point, the company’s name was no longer representative of the memory solutions or the product range, so Sunil renamed the business Integral Memory. “We were supplying something that would go into something else, we would integrate into it,” he explains. “But also, our philosophy is in our name, because we operate with integrity and deliver quality. From day one, we've always provided only quality products. And we still have that reputation today. “When a customer comes to us with a memory-based requirement we can deliver what they need next day and solve their problem. Across a wide spectrum we have what our customers need.” The move from high-volume sales to providing solutions also included developing the company’s own packaging facility. “We make a large percentage of products because we buy the components and we assemble them, which means customers can place an
Sunil Kotecha managing director
integralmemory.com
When a customer comes to us with a memory- based problem we can deliver what they need next day and solve that problem. Across a wide spectrum “
we have what our customers need.
”
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