Comments
Panasonic India is betting big on the consumer durables segment, which it expects to become one of its key growth engines. The company has entered the OLED TV segment and also expanded its 4K LED TV range and started local production of refrigerators this year.
Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India and South-Asia and V-P, Appliances Company, Panasonic Corporation said, “We are putting a big thrust behind the consumer appliances business. We are targeting revenues of over ₹5,000 crore by this fiscal year end from the segment.” The company, which has a presence in both B2C and B2B segments, earned revenues of about ₹4,000 crore from the consumer appliances segment last fiscal.
“The launch of our first OLED TV range will enable us to fill the gap in our TV portfolio at the premium end. This is a significant leap in terms of technology as we are offering products with clear differentiators. We have also expanded our 4K LED TV range significantly,” he added.
While the company’s OLED TV range starts at ₹2.99 lakh, it has also launched 11 models of 4K LED TV starting at ₹65,000. Overall, Panasonic India hopes to grab 11-12 per cent market share in the TV segment which is currently about 9 per cent.
Refrigerator segment
On the refrigerators segment, Sharma said, “In March, we started domestic production of refrigerators in sizes of 300 litres and 330 litres in India. In September, we will also start producing smaller sizes such as 260 litres. We believe with more consumers moving from direct-cool refrigerators to frost-free refrigerators, our “made-in-India” refrigerators will help grow our footprint especially in smaller towns and cities.”
Talking about the recent cut in GST rates for washing machines, refrigerators and smaller sized-TVs, Sharma said that the price reduction benefits will be seamlessly passed on to the consumers.
“The government’s move will help improve the penetration and affordability of these products. However, it could have been a large reform, if the GST rates had been cut down across all categories of consumer durables,” he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.