Anchor Electricals, a household name in wiring and switches, will leverage its parent Panasonic’s expertise to grow its business this year in fans and lights as well as in the solar photo-voltaic modules business.

Panasonic, a leader in the Japanese market for lighting systems, has launched energy-saving LED lights under the Anchor brand and has expanded its CFL business. “In the near future we will expand in the energy solutions space by unveiling products and services such as solar energy monitoring systems at a plant level,” says Kiyoshi Otaki, Managing Director, Anchor Electricals Pvt Ltd. Panasonic acquired Anchor for 40 billion Yen or approx Rs 2,500 crore a few years ago. Its major investment in Anchor included commissioning two facilities at Daman and Dhamdachi with an initial investment of Rs 200 crore. “India is one of Panasonic's strategic markets and has a robust potential to evolve as one of our largest manufacturing hubs outside Japan,” explains Otaki.

Anchor will leverage Panasonic’s distribution strength, brand equity and product technology to provide affordable electrical solutions across socio-economic strata in India, says Otaki. “With this objective and the fact that the number of pucca houses and electrification would be widespread, we expect a growth in all our business verticals,” said Otaki.

Anchor is among the largest pan-India players in the electrical construction materials market

and has a majority market share in the switches and accessories business at 40 per cent (an approximately Rs 3,500 crore market), followed by wires and cables and its low voltage switchgear business where it has a 10 per cent share in each of these markets. In fans and lighting its market share is less than 10 per cent, but which, it says, is growing steadily.

So far, Anchor’s strong markets for fans were in the west and south. However, over the

last two years it has made a strong foray into the east and northern Indian markets as well. “While

we have traditionally played in the mass segment of ceiling fans, over the last three years we have expanded our premium range extensively. We intend to introduce products in this segment that would offer wide variety, competitive pricing, lower power consumption, higher air delivery per watt and low operational noise. This is being made possible due to technical back-up and experience of Panasonic,” says Otaki. The fans are adapted to withstand the quality of power in India and the voltage fluctuations electrical gadgets are subject to.

Otaki says Anchor aims to be one of the leading lighting solutions providers in India by 2018,

when Panasonic will be a 100 years old. Panasonic, he says, is the world’s third largest lighting company and boasts more than 30,000 products in its lighting portfolio. While competing companies such as Philips deal with lighting solutions for all spaces, Anchor’s approach is more into energy solutions where lighting management is an integral part, explains Otaki. “Our path in the future will be to strengthen our position in energy management and grow in energy generation (through its solar PV business) and conservation,” he adds.

Anchor’s turnover last year was Rs 1,584 crore and it’s targeting a net turnover of Rs 1,814 crore for FY 2015. The power segment contributes 90 per cent to the profits of Anchor.

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