Panasonic aims to grow its appliance exports to Rs 1 billion in 3 years

Japanese consumer durables major Panasonic Wednesday said it aims to grow its appliance exports revenue from India to Rs 1 billion in three years, driven by strong demand from regions like SAARC, the US and Malaysia.

The company already exports appliances like electric cookers, mixer grinders and wet grinders to international markets and clocked export revenue of about Rs 640 million last fiscal.

"India has been a key export hub for us and regions like SAARC, Hong Kong, Malaysia, US and Thailand are among the largest markets for our appliances exports business. We expect the export revenue to grow about 60 per cent in the next three years...it would be at about Rs 1 billion," Panasonic Appliances India Company MD Hidenori Aso told PTI.

He added that the small appliances business currently accounts for about six per cent of Panasonic India's consumer business.

At present, overall Panasonic Appliances business exports to 43 countries.

To cater to the growing demand, the company plans to increase the plant capacity in the next five years and invest about Rs 30 crore.

Aso said the company has been manufacturing appliances in India for decades now and that has played a key role in maintaining costs, despite the rupee falling by over 10 per cent against the US dollar.

The company today unveiled a 'Made in India' mini rice cooker that will be exported to Japan -- Panasonic's home market -- as well as to countries like the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The company expects to ship close to 45,000 units of these cookers by March next year.

Panasonic has a current production capacity of one million rice cookers and total capacity of 1.43 million kitchen appliances at its Chennai plant.

"Rice cooker as a concept was born in Japan. Now, we are producing these in India and exporting to Japan, this speaks volumes about the quality," Panasonic President and CEO (India and South Asia) Manish Sharma said.