Home appliances and consumer electronics company Panasonic India today said it has invested Rs 115 crore to set up a manufacturing plant at Jhajjar, Haryana, to locally produce refrigerators.
The factory spread across 1,50,000 sqft, with an annual production capacity of 5 lakh units will be operational in November 2017 and the company expects the sales from the facility to start from April 2018.
"This will fill the balance pie that was missing from Panasonic's locally manufactured product portfolio in India. Refrigerators to a large extent will be manufactured in India except the large capacity refrigerator. This factory will help us to penetrate across smaller towns because the requirement for fridge in those markets is rapidly increasing," Panasonic India and South Asia President and Chief Executive Officer Manish Sharma told reporters here.
Panasonic currently imports fridges from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam and the company said it will continue to import the large-capacity refrigerators.
"We are looking at starting local production for 300 litres and 330 litres in 2018. Subsequently, more capacities are also being explored like below 300 litres for feasibility. Refrigerators beyond 330 litres will still be continued to be imported from our Asian facilities," he said.
The Japanese company, which is eyeing a revenue of Rs 330 crore from refrigerators this fiscal year, said it aims to double its market share and sales from the category in the next two years.
"We have around 1.5 per cent of the market share in and we are looking to have 5 per cent market share in 2018. We are looking at doubling our this year's revenue in 2018. We are looking at a revenue of Rs 600 crore coming from fridge in 2018," Sharma said.
The market for refrigerators is estimated to be 13 million units.
"Globally, India has been identified as one of the strategic regions for growth. The prospering economy, increasing buying power and a conducive environment for manufacturing has transformed India into a growth magnet for the world.
"Thus, we would like to extend our commitment further by introducing the new refrigerator line that offers safe, reliable and high quality electronics products," Panasonic Corporation President of Appliance Company and Senior Managing Director Tetsuro Homma said.
Panasonic India, which is eyeing an overall revenue of Rs 10,800 crore for this fiscal at a growth of 25 per cent, said it aims to contribute 4 per cent of the global turnover by 2019 from 2 per cent at present.
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