China-based consumer electronics and durables major Skyworth is set to take its retail footprint pan-India soon. The company has done market seeding in various markets across South, and had formally launched its range of LED televisions in Andhra Pradesh a few months ago, and overall has sold 25,000 units so far, said A. Gopal Krishna, Head HR & Consultant to MD.
It has already set up 100 after-sales service points in the South through franchise arrangement, apart from six company-owned service centres in key locations. It is in the process of appointing distributors and expanding retail horizon.
The $4-billion Hong Kong stock exchange-listed company has six manufacturing facilities (four in China and one each in Brazil and Poland). It has priced its products “at least 20 per cent lesser than any comparable product available in the market, without any compromise on quality”. Attributing the ability to price at that levels to the economy of scale, Krishna said the company manufactures 15 million panel TVs a year in China (according to industry estimates, the size of the panel TV market in India is a little over 5 million units). “We are the market leader in China, followed by Hisense and TCL,” he said.
The company has been manufacturing panel TVs for Infinity Retail Pvt Ltd (Croma) of the Tatas under its in-house brand Croma. “Now, we are in talks to renew the contract.”
Tie-ups
“Globally, we are the 10th largest TV brand, and have strategic manufacturing and technology tie-ups with various Japanese and Korean brands in some markets,” he said. For example, it manufactures LCD panels in China jointly with LG Electronics. And, it has TV manufacturing tie-ups with Japanese brands Hitachi and Toshiba in Russia and Brazil respectively.
According to him, Skyworth is also one of the key suppliers of set-top boxes to Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Airtel and Hathway. It is also in technology tie-up with the mobile handset manufacturer Micromax.