Anchor ventures into LED segment; plans local manufacturing

Company had last week opened a LED lighting experience centre in Mumbai

Anchor Electricals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of electronics major Panasonic India, is looking to expand its portfolio in the LED lighting segment and plans to set up a new production unit for it.

The company had last week opened a LED (light-emitting diode) lighting experience centre in Mumbai and would now open shortly next one at Bangalore.

"Our next such showroom will be in Bangalore and we will continue expanding to other major cities in India and hope to increase to 1,000 stores, including distributor and dealer stores, by around FY 2014-15.

"We will open four distributor stores in Mumbai and gradually spread out to other main urban areas," Anchor Electricals Vice President Sales Ashok Gangar told PTI.

He added that presently the centre has imported products manufactured by Panasonic at Malaysia and China.

"Right now it has around 40 products and another 40 would be added in next two months," said Gangar.

"But we have plans to manufacture all LED products in India. We are new in this field in India. We have to get customised as per the Indian taste. We need some time to understand the product and then only we would start production," he said.

Gangar further said that Anchor would soon select a site for a new plant to manufacture LED in India, however, he refused to share the details of the location.

Panasonic had acquired Anchor, the 49-year-old Indian family-owned electrical equipment brand, in 2007. Anchor sells products like switches, fans, CFL and LEDs. It also hawks switches under the Panasonic brand, which are priced slightly higher.

According to Gangar, Anchor has expanded almost double after it came in Panasonic's fold.

"By March next year our turnover would be Rs 2,100 crore and it has almost doubled. In 2007, when Pansasonic acquired it, the turnover was around Rs 1,000 crore," he said, adding that it has retained its number one slot in the electrical switch gear industry.

At present, 55% of the sale revenue of Anchor come from this segment, Gangar added.

Anchor, which has also ventured in the electric fan industry, is going to grow 60% to achieve the target of selling over one million fans by the end of FY 2013-14.

"This year fan section is growing by 77% (in terms of value) as compared to last year and is going to achieve its target of selling a million fans by end of FY13-14," he said.

Although, presently the company does not export, but it has plans to export in next two years to Gulf and Africa.

"Till now there is no export from us. But in last few years, changes have happened. Our quality has improved as new technologies are coming from Japan. In next two years, we would start exporting our products to Middle East and Africa under Anchor by Panasonic brand," he said.