Panasonic’s India arm is firing on all cylinders as it seeks to make the most out of a sustained boom in the consumer durables segment. Apart from expanding its manufacturing base in India, the company announced plans to enter the air and water purifier segment on Wednesday. Panasonic India is looking at revenues of Rs 5,500 crore from the consumer durables segment this financial year.
“Our focus is on improving quality of life and we are concentrating on health,” said Manish Sharma, Panasonic India’s managing director of the consumer products division while elaborating the company’s product strategy. The company launched ‘Panasonic BLUE water purifiers’ and ‘Nanoe Air Purifiers’.
Panasonic will also launch discounts from October 1, to take advantage of the festive season and mop up close to Rs 1,200 crore in sales. “The theme will be celebrations. We will roll it out to consumers by October 5,” Sharma added.
The water purifiers will be priced between Rs 7,990 and Rs 25,490 while air purifiers will be priced between Rs 19,995 and Rs 47,995. A number of water purifiers are available for less than Rs 5,000. Sharma was quick to defend Panasonic’s pricing strategy and said that the low-cost purifiers were predominantly gravity-based while electric (reverse osmosis based or UV-based) were more expensive.
Panasonic, which has close to 1,400 service centres across India, is looking to expand its footprint to 1,500 service centres by the end of the financial year. After-sales service has long been a cause for complaint in this segment. “We plan to differentiate on after-sales service,” said Sharma.
The company plans to roll out these products in the national capital region (NCR) initially and then move to Andhra Pradesh within three months. “NCR is extremely competitive and we are using this market as a test case for our systems and processes,” Sharma said.
While the water purifiers will initially be imported from Japan, the company will begin manufacturing locally within six months. The company, which already manufactures a significant portion of its product portfolio in various locations in India, will operationalise a manufacturing facility in Jhajjar by December. “The facility will be spread over 78-acres and will see an investment of $300 million over five years,” Sharma said. The facility will house three independent plants for manufacturing air conditioners, washing machines and welding machines and create 1,025 jobs.
Reports of an impending economic slowdown have not dampened spirits at the company. “More options available to consumers, explosion in retail are key growth drivers that
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