Panasonic launches ‘Eco Ideas’ for new range of products

Launching its green initiative named ‘Eco Ideas’, Panasonic India has planned to keep all future efforts, including setting up manufacturing facilities, launching new products and marketing campaigns around this new concept. The concept launched in India will soon be extended to other south Asian markets including Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Hoping to effect about 2.4 lakh tonne reduction in carbon-dioxide emission in three years, Panasonic has also introduced an inverter technology in refrigerators as a part of its efforts to improve energy efficiency. The company plans to launch air conditioners with the new inverter technology from December in the country. Panasonic will be investing close to $300 million (about Rs 1,400 crore) over the next three years in India to set up manufacturing facilities, flagship showrooms (catalogue stores) and for marketing. The greenfield factories will manufacture plasma television sets, refrigerators and washing machines. Panasonic already has production units in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Vadodara and Chennai and plans on opening up catalogue stores, which would be nearly 20,000 sq. ft each, across five cities in one year. The first showroom will be inaugurated in Gurgaon in December. The other cities include Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata, Balakrishnan said. The company reported Rs 2,200 crore in revenue last year and targets Rs 3,000 crore this financial year. The growth is expected to be boosted by the festival season for which Panasonic has announced assured gifts for all high-end products.