Panasonic India aims aggressive growth

Kolkata: Panasonic India, the flagship company of Japanese electronics maker Panasonic in the country is eyeing aggressive growth this fiscal from its smart home appliance range. The company aims to grow at 40% this fiscal against the industry growth of 6%-7% in the Rs 11,800crore home appliance market.

“The smart home appliance market in India is under-penetrated. Also with the increase in electrification in India, demand has soared. In a few years, the demand in replacement market will also rise. So, we saw this as a good opportunity to focus on the home appliance market,” said Gaurav Minocha, Panasonic India home appliances head.

With its new range of appliances, equipped with ECONAVI inverter technology, Panasonic expects to capture around 5% of the frost-free refrigerator market and 10% of the washing machine market by FY2021,” Minocha added on the sidelines of the company’s launch of a new range of frost-free refrigerators on Wednesday.

He said, “We are focusing on product innovations and customer service to gain ground. We shall have India-specific products to cater to the domestic customers.”

The company also plans to strengthen its sales network by increasing its retail outlets from 7,500 to 12,000 stores by 2020. It recently started manufacturing refrigerators at their Jhajjar, Haryana, plant. The unit has the capability to curb out 10 lakh ACs, 400,000 washing machines and 500,000 refrigerators annually.