Comments
Almost a year after Philips Domestic Appliances was renamed Versuni, Henk Siebren de Jong, the global CEO of the company visited Gujarat on Wednesday to inaugurate a new facility at Bavla near Ahmedabad that will manufacture air fryers and garment steamers. In an interview with businessline, Jong said the Amsterdam-headquartered company will continue to invest in India and targets to double its business in the next five years. Edited Excerpts:
How has the market in India performed for Versuni this festive season?
The festival season in India was good. We were able to sell products with a higher value this year. We see the Indian consumer appreciates more innovation. We see the premium segment picking up. We also see the value segment picking up. So the high-end and the opening price points are picking up and there is some pressure (for products) in the mid-range. The demand for premium products is coming from the metros, but we now see the highest growth coming from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Big cities have always given a lot of growth, we now see the smaller cities like Ahmedabad growing faster.
What is the growth trajectory the company has set for itself in India?
We have been here in India for the last 90 years. We always invest in India which is one of our biggest markets. So for us, India is very important... We have set a time frame of around five years to double our business in India. We want to focus on doubling our consumers who are our brand ambassadors, because if you have a happy consumer, business will continue to grow.
The company is planning to improve the localisation of its products to 90 per cent from the present 70 per cent. For products like Philips Air Fryers that were introduced into the Indian market way back in 2012, about 25 per cent of the components are still being imported. Do you feel the pace of localisation is on a slower side?
If you compare with other companies, they bring in sub-assembly and they localise only the packaging. To localise the plastic and metal and other components, is a lot of hard work. You need to create an ecosystem around you. Secondly, the quality has to be good. We are not going to localise if the quality is not good. So it takes a bit of time. However, we see the process going faster and faster. We will continue to bring innovation. We will continue to produce locally and in the process, we also hope to increase our market share.
Air pollution is a growing concern for many cities in India. How do you see the market for air purifiers grow?
It is a very interesting market for us. We will continue to invest in this market. Our products work very well and show that the air is becoming clean.
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.