Haier TVs to roll out of Hotline unit

Business compulsions can make strange bedfellows. Therefore, when its colour televisions roll out of Hotline's Noida unit, white goods major Haier will not complain.

This despite the fact that barely three years ago, Haier's first attempt at entering India in collaboration with Hotline culminated in a spat, and barely six months ago the local firm left no stone unturned to thwart the Chinese major's second attempt at entering the country.

Hotline and Haier are partners once again, thanks to a contract given by the foreign firm to the Noida-based Dixon to produce colour televisions.

Dixon, on its part, gave a sub-contract to Hotline, also a picture tube manufacturer that has excess capacity at its Noida unit.

The head of Haier's newly set up Indian arm, TK Banerjee, said he was not perturbed by the arrangement, though it might seem uncomfortable to some.

"As long as I get products as per my quality standards, I should not complain," he said. Banerjee is even open to working with Hotline directly in future. "After all, it has modern production lines," he pointed out.

"I am a businessman. I have to look out for business. I do not mind if they come with a clean deal. In this case anyway, they have not come to us directly," said Hotline Chairman Anil Gupta, who raised the pitch about Haier and the Chinese way of doing work when the joint venture did not work out.

A mindset change is what the new Haier team needs if it has to go anywhere from here. To begin with, it has to establish the Chinese brand in a country where "Made in China" does not impress, despite the fact that Haier is giving headaches to American, European, Japanese and Korean firms worldwide, even in their own backyards. So, there is a stress on Haier being a global brand, rather than another coming from China.

Says Banerjee: "While I am proud of the origin of my company, let me clarify that Haier is a global firm."

After all, a shipment of 'Made in India' Haier products to Sri Lanka is already on its way, and more will go to other South Asian, West Asian and African countries soon.