SPPL expands offline retail presence for Kodak TV in India

Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd. (SPPL) - the licensee of Eastman Kodak Company has announced its offline expansion with its retail presence in Croma, Aditya Birla More and METRO Cash & Carry stores across India. With over 150 selling points in offline space, SPPL aims to capture 4% (Online + offline) market share for its KODAK TV’s in India by 2020. This announcement coincides with SPPL’s two-year anniversary celebrations being a Kodak brand licensee that began in the month of August. The brand has a pact with Flipkart for online sales. Speaking about the strategy to expand its offline reach, Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, SPPL said, “I am extremely happy to announce that for this anniversary, we are launching KODAK TV’s in three major LFRs in India; Croma, METRO Cash & Carry and Aditya Birla More. KODAK TV’s are now available in over 14000 pin codes across India and we have service centres in all these locations to ensure service excellence across all of our products.” The hitherto e-commerce centric, affordable brand has expanded its focus and is offering customers the benefits of physical retail store availability which will enable them to be able to test the product, compare it to the leading brands in the market, and understand the way the product functions before making a purchase. The offline stores will help SPPL understand the market better and connect with the consumers in a more personal way. The offline space offers scope for digital transformation like never before with brands gearing up to provide their consumers an immersive and interactive experience to disrupt the offline market space. Keeping in line with the same, KODAK HD LED TV’s will feature a new and improved user interface for smart TV’s that will help the customer operate their smart TV’s with smoothness. As per BARC India, in the past one year, there has been an increase of 35% in HD channels. The percentage of homes that had cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs in 2016 was 87%; this now stands at 79%. With this spike in viewership of high-definition (HD) channels, sales of LEDs and smart TV sets are also on the rise. This trend makes it the perfect time for SPPL to focus on building its presence across the country through physical expansion and renewed focus on R&D. Commenting on the strategic partnership between SPPL and Aditya Birla More, Atul Bakshi, AGM - Buying and Merchandising (CDIT) said, "Despite the growing popularity of e-commerce, retails stores have been the mainstay for consumers to get an idea of the look, feel and design of products in the consumer electronics space. We see a very fruitful partnership as KODAK HD LED TV’s have already gained such a loyal fan base in the past two years, and we hope that through this collaboration, more customers have access to more affordable brands.” “There is a growing demand for products that offer good quality products at an affordable price point. In a short span of two years, KODAK TV’s have already garnered immense brand recall and acceptance. We are glad to have partnered with SPPL for their KODAK TV range in order to provide an affordable value proposition to our growing 3 million customer base across our 25 wholesale outlets in the country. We look forward to a more collaborative and fruitful association with SPPL”, said spokesperson of METRO Cash & Carry. Smart Television sales are on the on the rise in Tier 1 cities. However, recent trends also suggest that there has been an overwhelming demand from Tier 2 cities as well due to the increase in penetration of the internet with increased speed, rich and diverse media content and rise in disposable incomes. The growth in TV ownership in rural India has been higher than the national average. Number of homes with a TV rose from 99 million in 2016 to 109 million in 2018. Nearly 70 per cent of the company's sales have been generated through the online space and SPPL is now expanding to increase presence in the offline space as well. SPPL is present across cities with over 150 sales points, mostly through its robust dealer distribution network.