In an Effort to Dominate the Market, Panasonic India Sets 70 Percent Annual Growth Target

The domestic consumer durable market, which is currently being reigned by Korea, may be slowing, but it still remains in considerably high demand. In order to keep up with high input costs, prices have reflectively increased. Panasonic (News - Alert) India has been preparing to change amidst these trends and changes, as President Daizo Ito recently explained in a recent interview with Daily News & Analysis (DNA).

As prices go up to help offset high input costs, Panasonic, too has hiked up its prices in hopes of making a big financial impact. Ito also noted a large influencing factor which can prove very advantageous for all – the rapidly approaching holiday shopping season.

“Despite the slackening of demand, companies had to go for a price increase due to high input cost, rising interest rates and a depreciating rupee, which further hurt demand. On white goods, the hike was about 4 percent and on television sets about 2-3 percent. After the last quarter of low sales, consumer durable companies are targeting this festive season as an excellent opportunity to increase their pocket share and reach out to consumers,” Ito explained, adding that Panasonic India is anticipating 35-40 percent of its sales to be during the “festive season,” which has led to an increase in spending on marketing initiatives.

The company also plans to continue focusing on what’s it’s known for, as well as moving into new sectors, such as water and air purifiers, which “low penetration and increasing consumer awareness” served as major influencing factors for. “Going forward, we will continue to focus on youth-centric products such as TVs, technology equipped latest home appliances and beauty products for personal grooming,” Ito explained.

In order to continue flourishing and strengthening business continuity, the company is aiming for an annual turnover rate of 10,000 crore – a pretty penny when converted to US currency. “To achieve this, we will continue to focus on developing India-specific products and communicating and reaching out to the consumers in the right way. In fact, we aim at being the largest consumer durable player in six years. To achieve this, we have set a target of growing our business by 70 percent on a year-on-year basis,” Ito concluded.

The company claims that half of its $100 billion in sales comes from markets outside of Japan and India, which then contributes to about 1 percent of global sales. By spring 2018, however, Panasonic India expects this to rise to 5 percent. This will certainly help put “India on the global map of Panasonic,” which Ito points out as one of the company’s overall goals.

To learn more about Panasonic’s offerings, visit www.panasonic.com.