New sales unit for Philips, Electrolux at Videocon

Videocon has set up a separate business unit to market and sell Electrolux and Philips brands in India. Videocon acquired the rights for marketing Philips television in India, in April. It already has the India brand rights for Electrolux home appliances.

Currently, Videocon operates through product-specific business units that manage multiple brands and the new entity will change the existing structure.

Anil Khera will be the chief executive officer for the Philips-Electrolux unit, who will be shouldering this additional role along with continuing to head Videocon’s direct-to-home and mobile handsets businesses. The group has also hired Sajeev Rajasekharan as the COO of Electrolux and Neeraj Sethi as COO of Philips brand.

The five-year agreement was signed when Videocon acquired the manufacturing operations of Electrolux in India along with rights to market appliance brands Electrolux and Kelvinator in the country. The discussions about renewal of the contract between Videocon and Electrolux are one.

Philips and Electrolux were clubbed together as a business unit as they are the premium brands in the Videocon portfolio and complement rather than compete with each other given their product mix.