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Mr K.R. Kim

Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, May 27 In the process of consolidating the Videocon portfolio, the newly-appointed Vice-Chairman and CEO of Videocon Industries, Mr K.R. Kim, intends to rationalise the brand mix.

While the Videocon brand is the strongest in the Indian market, followed by Electrolux, Kenstar and Kelvinator, others like Akai and Hyundai are struggling.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Kim said, “We have to see how each brand performs in the next one year. Today Videocon is the most successful brand while Hyundai is the unsuccessful one in the company’s portfolio. We may have to kick out the unsuccessful brands.”

Hyundai Electronics, which is a division within the company, is likely to face the axe unless it improves its performance within a year. With revenues of Rs 250 crore, Hyundai is a ‘push’ brand unlike the other Korean brands which enjoy customer pull in the Indian market. Akai India too has been a division of Videocon and has been using its distribution strength to build the brand in the country.

Streamlining the multi-brand strategy, followed by Videocon Industries all these years, the new CEO is expected to bring all the brands under the Videocon umbrella and improve efficiencies within the company.

Adds Mr Kim, “Today each brand is under a different company and under these circumstances, it is difficult to be competitive and productive. I would like to have all the brands under one company.”

Apart from the Indian market, Videocon is expected to build brands for the international market.

“We aim to have 50 per cent of the turnover from the international market where Videocon presently has a negligible presence,” says Mr Kim who is currently in the process of recruiting people.

While hiring new employees across industries and companies ranging from Microsoft to Dish TV and even former LG employees, Videocon is also simultaneously undergoing restructuring, especially on the sales, marketing and innovation front with a new set of people handpicked by Mr Kim himself.

The former LG chief is back in India and has taken up the Videocon job as a post-retirement offer.

He will now be pitting the Videocon brand against the Korean chaebols including LG, the brand he helped build to a dominant position in the Indian market in the past.

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