Panasonic India aims 10% growth, top-line of Rs 9,600 crore in FY22

Diversified technology company Panasonic is aiming a 10 per cent growth and top-line of nearly Rs 9,600 crore this fiscal in India, helped by growth across verticals and price increase, said a top company official.

The company had recorded a revenue of Rs 8,723 crore in the last fiscal.

The company has witnessed good growth in sales so far this fiscal across segments, helped by pent up demand. However, the LED TV section lagged due to the unavailability of panels for the last 3-4 months, said Panasonic India CEO Manish Sharma.

"So, television is not witnessing growth because of those factors, but all appliances are having a double-digit growth, and overall company's growth will be in excess of 10 per cent," said Sharma.

When asked about the expected numbers, he said: "This year, we are looking around Rs 9,600 crore".

The company is already back to the pre-pandemic level in terms of revenue and volume.

Meanwhile, Panasonic has also ruled out any immediate price hike and said it expects some easing of inflationary pressure from December onwards.

The cost pressures are high because of the rise in logistics, supply chain pressure and soaring commodity prices, according to Sharma.

However, he believes that some of the elements have almost touched their ceiling that will either stay there or go for a correction.

In 2021, like many others, Panasonic has also increased prices twice to maintain margins.

When asked about business so far this year, Sharma said it is getting good traction from cooling products like air conditioners, where it is gaining market share.

While sharing an update over its plan to merge Panasonic Life Solution with the company, he said: "It will be one company as soon as we get formal approval from the authority, but internally, we have already created virtual operations from October 1, 2021".

This will help in providing consolidated offerings to Panasonic Consumers and institutional buyers.

Presently, B2C sales, including its Life Solution business, contribute 76 to 78 per cent and the rest is from B2B.

Expanding its B2B business, Panasonic on Wednesday launched the Miraie Profactory platform, an Industrial IoT/ Smart Factory solution, developed indigenously at the company's India Innovation Centre.

According to Sharma, this would help the various small and medium enterprises to upgrade, as the platform is compatible with different types of machines in the manufacturing space.

It will enable Indian manufacturers to digitise their factory operations thus, allowing enterprises to realise the true potential of Industry 4.0.

Miraie Profactory uses new-age technologies such as cloud, IoT, analytics, mobile app to manage end-to-end operations, resulting in enhanced production efficiency and quality.

"In our pilot projects, we have been seeing an increase of 8-15 per cent in manufacturing facility productivity. Panasonic's Miraie Profactory platform aims at empowering enterprises, who are in process of digital transformation," said Sharma.

In FY 2019-20, Panasonic's consumer business had contributed Rs 3,738 crore, and Panasonic Life Solution Rs 3,926 crore.

Panasonic Appliances India Company was at Rs 252 crore, while the rest Rs 807 crore was from its B2B business.