Datacom Solutions to start commercial rollout in April.
Consumer durables major Videocon Industries is expecting the ongoing slowdown to impact its growth in the first half of the calendar year and it now expects to post a 12 per cent growth against the earlier 20 per cent target, said analysts.
“The slowdown is getting reflected on every company across the world, and we expect this to loom large until June this year. Earlier we were expecting 20 per cent growth and now we feel that it would be only 12 per cent. However, there is growth, but there is also slackness in demand,” Videocon Group Chairman and Managing Director Venugopal Dhoot told Business Standard.
For the financial year ended September 30, 2008, Videocon had reported a net profit of Rs 931.31 crore, an 8.9 per cent growth, on 14.76 per cent rise in revenue of Rs 10,187.19 crore. During the same time, It had predicted a 20 per cent growth for the current financial year.
There is demand for consumer durables, however, now there is a tendency by customers to defer the purchases, he said, adding, “We expect growth to accelerate from July this year”.
The group has also put in measures to counter the economic downturn. “In a move to tackle the situation, we have become more attentive and careful. There will not be any production cut or lay off because we are expecting higher growth by the second half of this year,” Dhoot said.
The company aims to grow its overseas business more than three-fold in the next three years by offering new products to achieve sales of $1 billion.
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Having completed consolidation of its core business processes across various levels, the domestic consumer durables major had recently decided to reposition its multi-brand strategy by leveraging its individual brands.
In the past, segmented production capacity and lack of focused approach had hindered the company’s growth against multinational entrants in the domestic consumer durables space.
On Datacom Solutions, Dhoot said that the company will start commercial rollout of GSM services by April this year. The company – in which Videocon owns 64 per cent and the rest 36 per cent is owned by industrialist Mahendra Nahata, has already commenced its network rollout.
The company is also in talks a number of foreign companies to sell stake, the proceeds of which will be used for its operations.