Godrej Appliances is planning to commence pan-India market expansion for its television business from the beginning of the fiscal 2011-12, targeting five per cent market share in the first year of operations.
“Market expansion plans for our television business will be implemented from April, 2011, and the pan-India market expansion will be completed in the first three months of next fiscal year,” said Kamal Nandi, vice president (sales & marketing), Godrej Appliances. The market expansion would be started in all the regions of the country simultaneously.
The television market in India is currently around 13 million units per annum, including LCD (liquid crystal display), LED (light-emitting diode) and CRT (cathode ray tube) television sets. “Our aim is to capture five per cent of this market in the first year of operations,” he added.
At present, it has presence in television markets in the four states of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharastra except Mumbai, with around three per cent market share in the first two states and five per cent market share in the other two states.
The company entered the television market by launching Godrej EON range of XLCDs with iPIX technology, in September 2008.
It also plans to launch new television products along with pan-India market launch in April. The manufacturing capacity for television sets would also be increased, once it sets up a facility in south India. The company is currently scouting for land in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala to set up manufacturing facility to cater the needs of the regional market.
Chassis for CRT televisions are manufactured by the company and assembled with support of small assembling units in the unorganised sector, while LCD television assembling relies mostly on imports. Almost 70 per cent cost of an LCD television is on importing the panel, as the country has little capacity in manufacturing this, he added.
It is currently importing LCD panels from Turkey through a tie up. The market demand for LCD TVs is growing while the demand for CRT TVs is gradually on a decline. The company is also looking at trends in the market and would be ready to put investments to manufacture LCD panels in India, if the market demands it in future, said Nandi.