Chaebols beam past local TV firms in the volume game

Top domestic television brands are steadily losing out to their Korean counterparts, as per the latest ORG-Gfk report.

In the first quarter of the current financial year, while the industry volumes slipped 12.1 per cent, market leader LG increased its marketshare to 17.9 per cent, a growth of 25.8 per cent. Samsung, another Korean players, improved its share to 14.6 per cent, a 30.1 per cent growth.

Local brands such as Videocon, BPL and Onida, which used to command the top three positions on the ORG list a year ago, have all registered a fall in their sales volumes in the quarter year-on-year.

The market share of Videocon and BPL has dropped below 10 per cent for the first time. While Videocon's share fell to 8.4 per cent, a 6.7 per cent decline in volume, Onida saw its volume falling by 14 per cent for a 10.5 per cent marketshare.

The share of BPL fell to 7.6 per cent as its sales volume declined by 54.4 per cent.

According to the local players, the ORG report "may not be the correct assessment of the market".

"As far as I am concerned, both Videocon and Onida are extremely stable. BPL may have lost some ground because of its internal problems. But our reports do not indicate that we are selling any less than the Korean firms. Instead, they have resorted to price cuts to match us on volumes," says Gulu Mirchandani, chairman and managing director, Mirc Electronics, the makers of the Onida brand.

Videocon chairman V N Dhoot also says that the ORG figures are questionable.

"Videocon also manufactures and markets the Akai, Sansui and Toshiba brands. If their numbers are added to that of Videocon, we will emerge as the number one player in the market. It is up to the company to decide which brand it wants to promote," he says.

A top BPL executive says that secondaries (dealer to customer sales) may be down in the first quarter since inventories from the previous quarter (large volumes were produced during the Cricket World Cup) may have been pushed through big discount offers.

According to Ravinder Zutshi, director (sales), Samsung India Electronics, the figures reflected a gradual consolidation of the Korean players' position in the Indian market over time.

"We attribute our positive growth to our new product line-ups and an introduction of the latest technology products," he said.

The number of CTV units sold over the period was 14,94,200. In value terms this was equivalent to Rs 1,543.3 crore. The television industry witnessed a 12.1 per cent dip in sales and registered an even greater value wise decline of 20.4 per cent.

Mirchandani said, "If there has been a decline, it is purely because of the Cricket World Cup. We sold huge volumes before and during the event. Despite this, we are expecting a 12 per cent growth for the entire year, based on a 15-20 per cent growth during the festival season beginning this month."