Samsung India Electronics Ltd (SIEL), the Korean consumer electronics major, yesterday announced plans to invest $11 million in India during the next one year.
It plans to expand its production capacity and increase research and development (R&D) activities. The target is to garner sales worth Rs 1,300 crore during this fiscal. Sales worth Rs 700 crore has already been achieved.
"SIEL aims to become a Rs 2,500-crore group by 2003. This year itself, we expect to achieve Rs 1,300 crore mark. In order to achieve our aim, we will be investing $1 million in adding the second production line for large-sized colour televisions (CTVs) at the Noida factory. Also, total investment in the R&D centre will touch $10 million by next year," SIEL's vice-president sales Ravinder Zutshi said.
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While announcing its new festival season offerings, which include new models in fully automatic washing machines, frost-free refrigerators and the Plano range of CTVs, Zutshi said: "New launches combined with the Samsung shubh wedding bonanza scheme, we expect to do Rs 600 crore worth of sales in August-December."
Under the scheme specifically tailored for the Indian wedding season, Samsung has introduced twin- packs for its products for all the sections of consumers.
"The promotion has taken into consideration the requirements of the newly weds and caters to their requirements of hotel packages, appliances and fabrics," Zutshi said.
Consumer electronics accounted for 60 per cent of the company's sales and the remaining came from the home appliances, Zutshi said. The company expects that the home appliances will account for 50 per cent of the company's sales from the next year.
"The growth rate in the home appliances has been a phenomenal 91 per cent over the last year and was led by frost-free refrigerators. The company has sold 60,000 units from January to December. Washing machines and microwave ovens will be the other drivers of sales in home appliances," Zutshi said.
The growth in microwave ovens has doubled from 12 per cent last year to 24 per cent in this fiscal year, he said. He added that despite the current slowdown in the colour television market, Samsung was targeting at 11 per cent share this year at 5.3 lakh CTVs.
"The complete range of Plano televisions in 21, 25 and 29 inch screen sizes has been unveiled and this range is expected to contribute to 10 per cent of the turnover target," he said.
In the refrigerator segment, bio-fresh plus will be launched which has variable freezer space in 310, 560 and 610 litre sizes. Also, four new fully automatic washing machines will be launched with the tumble wash feature in the 5.5 kg category.
The company, which commenced exports this month, is exporting 60,000 CTVs this year to Spain and United Kingdom. The company aims to export about 3 lakh units during the next year.
"Next year, we will export to Sri Lanka and Maldives also," he added.