Panasonic to invest $100 mn in plasma TV manufacturing unit

Panasonic India plans to invest $100 million in its new plasma TV production facility in 2011, a top company official said today.        

"We plan to invest $100 million in our new production facility in 2011," Panasonic India CEO Daizo Ito told reporters here.        

He, however, did not divulge the location of the proposed facility. The company currently has five production units in the country, at Noida, Gurgaon, Vadodara, Chennai and Delhi.        

Ito was in the city to launch the world's slimmest, 1-inch plasma TV called Vierra PDP Z1.        

The market potential for plasma TV was much greater in India than China, Ito said, adding the demand for such high- end sets was increasing at a rate of 4-10 per cent in the country.        

The company has priced its plasma TV between Rs 24,000 and Rs 30 lakh (for an 103-inch screen). It has already sold ten such units this month.

Ito pegged the overall market size for plasma TV in India at around 10 per cent whereas globally it was around 13 per cent.        

"We are hoping to sell 60 per cent of our units (plasma TV) this year," he said, without revealing any numbers.   

On the company's revenue earned from all its products, he said Panasonic India earned Rs 4,500 crore last fiscal (2009) and is targeting a 200 per cent growth in the current financial year.        

Film star Ranbir Kapoor is the brand ambassador for Panasonic's plasma TV.