Panasonic Life Solutions India (formerly Anchor Electricals), which is into switchgear, wires, wiring devices, lighting solutions, and the home automation segment, is looking to invest ₹600 crore over the next few years as it plans to set up its eighth manufacturing facility in the country.
The company has two facilities at Daman (wires and cables; and wiring devices) and Haridwar (wiring devices and switchgear) each; and one each at Dhamdachi (indoor air quality), Kutch (wires and cables) and Kundi (tapes).
The proposed unit will come up at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh and is likely to to go on-stream in two years.
According to Vivek Sharma, Managing Director, the investments are to be made in two phases of ₹300 crore each. The facility will be spread across 35 acres of land and will cater to indoor air quality, wiring device and home automation solutions.
Investments are to be made out of internal accruals as the company remains debt-free, with substantial cash reserves. “In terms of fund availability, there are no issues. We are cash-rich, debt-free and we can use our own internal accruals,” he told BusinessLine.
According to Sharma, the company has about ₹1,000 crore cash reserves, while another ₹1,000-odd crore is there in the banks.
Panasonic Life Solutions — which operates through brands like Panasonic (in the premium end) and ‘Anchor by Panasonic’ (in the value for money segment) — competes with the likes of Havells, Finolex, Polycab, Crompton, Usha, Phillips and Bajaj across categories such as wire, cables, switchgear and lighting.
$1 billion in sales
According to Sharma, Panasonic Life Solutions is looking at $1 billion (₹7,100 crore) in sales by FY22. This, incidentally, is almost double the turnover of ₹3,615 crore that it reported in FY19.
Over the last two years, the company has already initiated a host of measures that include internal restructuring, reorganisation of its sales force and new hirings. From a single sales team, it has teams catering to B2B, B2C and even different verticals within the B2C segment.
The company is banking on new products across categories like Internet of Things (IoT) enabled offerings, protection gear, fans, and high-end lighting solutions with focus on “complete solutions”.
Panasonic Life Solutions has also introduced a new brand campaign as part of their marketing strategy. Called 'Naye India ke Badhte Load', the campaign will target consumers where there has been an increase in number of household appliances and a rise in the load on electrical appliances.