Panasonic Home Appliances India Co Ltd, a manufacturer of automatic cookers and super grinder mixers, is planning to expand its product line including plans to start manufacturing of food processors in India. The company is presently in the process of doubling its manufacturing capacity in Chennai facility for mixers and cookers with an investment of around $3 million (around Rs 14 crore).
We are conducting a feasibility study to enter manufacturing and marketing of food processors. Plans are in the initial stages, said Hidenori Aso, managing director, Panasonic Home Appliances. The food processor, which would be placed in the premium segment of the product category, would be designed for Indian customers, for example, with the addition of an atta kneader which has only use among Indians.
It is also planning to launch a sandwich maker, pop up toaster and coffee maker by October , 2011, said G Gurumohan, chief marketing officer, Panasonic Home Appliances India Co Ltd.
The company, which has been into manufacturing and marketing of premium segment mixers and automatic cookers for past several years, has launched three products — oven toasters, hand blenders and ball blenders around three months back.
With this, we will have six more products other than mixer and automatic cooker in the Indian market. The new products will be imported from our Chinese facility, he said.
The company is planning to double capacity of its manufacturing facility in Chennai in the next three years, to increase production to 2 million automatic cookers and 600,000 super grinder mixers. At present, it has a capacity to manufacturing 1 million units of cookers and 300,000 units of mixers a year. It would invest around Rs 14 crore for the expansion. It presently caters to 75 per cent of the market share in the segment with 850,000 rice cookers. The facility also manufactures super grinder mixers, and has a market share of 80 per cent in the premium mixer segment in India.
The premium mixer segment, which has a higher price range, is around 15 per cent of the mixer market in India, he added. It is also planning to double exports by next fiscal, said Aso. Presently, it exports 150,000 cookers and 80,000 mixers to countries including South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Panama, Maldives, Singapore, Nepal, Bhutan, West Asia, Peru and Nigeria. It would also commence exports to Thailand and Malaysia soon, added the company officials.
It on Wednesday announced special offers for the Tamil Nadu market. It has also launched a cooker for customers in Tamil Nadu which caters to the specific needs of the regional customers at a cost lower than its similar products in the market. The company has posted a turnover of $40 million (around Rs 184 crore) in the last fiscal and is expecting revenues of $65 million (around Rs 300 crore) in the present fiscal, said Aso.
