Samsung to cash in on soccer World Cup fever

With the football World Cup fever catching up across the nation, consumer electronics major Samsung India expects its colour television sales to grow by 20 per cent, to 1.8 million units in 2006, according to V L Narayan, regional head (South), Samsung India.

Addressing a press conference, he said the company would focus on high-end products such as flat screen, plasma and LCD TV sets to capture a larger market share.

"We aim to sell 1.8 million sets this year as against 1.5 million colour TV sets last year," he added.

Stating that the flat TV sales have jumped 100 per cent in 2005, Narayan said the company would increase its focus on this segment.

The company, which introduced six flat panel television models ranging from 20 inch to 46 inch earlier this year, plans to sell around one lakh units of plasma and LCD sets in 2006, from 10,000 units last year.

This would increase the company's market share in the category to 50 per cent from the present 33 per cent, he said. Flat panel sets would contribute about five per cent of the total television sales, he added.

In the flat TV segment, with a market size of 2 lakh units a year, the company plans to increase its market share to 30 per cent this year, from 22.5 per cent last year. "We plan to strengthen our flat television range this month by launching new sound-oriented models in the 21-inch and 29-inch screen-size segments," Narayan said.

Ruling out any possibility of the company producing colour TV sets for the Tamil Nadu government, Narayan said the government had invited bids for 14 inch CTV, which the company stopped producing almost a decade ago. There was hardly any chance of Samsung making a re-entry into this segment, he added.

Samsung is also planning to focus more on the 'lifestyle segment' which comprises audio players, digital still cameras and camcorders. The digital camcorder market size is estimated to be about 2.5 lakh units per year. The company expects a 10 per cent share in the segment this year.

In order to reach out to more tier II cities, the company had chalked out plans to showcase its products in 135 cities this year against 120 last year.

"South has emerged as a key contributor to the company's overall revenues. The share of sales from the southern states has gone up from 24 per cent to 31 per cent, almost equalling the contribution from the Northern states," he added.

In a bid to cash in on the growing market in the South, the company has lined up 11 'Dream Home' road shows in the region this year. The number of exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) too is likely to go up by 30 per cent from the present 82.