Good monsoon helped consumer electronics/ home appliances market surge :CEO Panasonic India

Ahmedabad:  President and CEO of India and South Asia of the leading Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances company Panasonic India,  Manish Sharma, today said that reasons like good monsoon, recent pay revisions of government employees and changed need hierarchy of Indian consumers making smart phones as their top priority, have contributed to very good growth to the sector this year which was otherwise sluggish for quite some time.

Talking to newsmen here on the occasion of introduction of its special ‘Assured 2 Win’ festive offer with a target to increase its market share from existing around 14% to 18% in the western region during the festive season, Mr Sharma said three to four reasons have contributed to the better over all growth of the Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances sector in India this year.

‘Firstly, with good monsoon this year and better agricultural produces, the rural economy has seen a surge. The purchasing power of the rural India has increased after three to 4 continuous spells of bad monsoons.  Second reason is the implementation of the 7 th pay commission. It has also boosted the purchasing power of government employees,’ he said.

‘Thirdly owing to the changing need hierarchy in last 6 to 7 years, smart phone, which makes its owner spend anything between 25 to 30 thousand a year on this equipment and related services, has become the top priority item of consumers instead of earlier days refrigerator. With all this factors combined the consumer electronics and Home appliances sector in the country has seen 15 to 20 % growth this year so far,’ Mr Sharma said.

Mr Sharma, who was the first Indian to be elevated to the role of an Executive Officer in the 98 years history of Japan based mother company Panasonic Corporation, said that his company has seen a surge of 30 to 35% this year in India in the above mentioned sector so far and with lots of initiatives aims to take it to 45 % by the end of Diwali season.

He said that of the total Rs 10800 crores Indian revenue target of the company, which was also in other products segments, this year the consumer products’ share alone was 4800 crores.

The President and CEO said that with the rise in solar power sector in India, the scope for his company’s lithium ion batteries which provide the storage option of such energy, will also increase manifold.

To a query he said his company’s current share of AC market in Gujarat was 18 % while that of TV and Washing Machine was 12 and 7.5 % respectively. ‘Because we don’t manufacture fridges in India and import it for sale our share in fridge market is low at 3%,’ he said.

DeshGujarat