Under TPV's banner, Philips eyes spot among top 5 Indian TV producers

Taiwan-based TPV Technology is eyeing a slot amongst the top five television producers in India after it relaunched the Philips brand towards the end of last year.

Sony, along with Samsung and LG, make up 75 per cent of the market with Panasonic and other brands comprise the remaining market share. TPV, which will have its first year of full operations after relaunching the Philips brand, is aiming for a 8-10 per cent market share by the end of 2020.

Under an agreement, TPV has global licensing rights to manufacture and sell Philips branded TV and audio, while Philips receives royalty. Back in 2012, Philips and TPV Technology formed TP Vision where Philips had a 30 per cent stake and the rest was owned by TPV. It had licensing rights to develop, manufacture and market Philips branded TV sets in Europe, Russia, Middle East, Latin America and selected countries in Asia-Pacific. Later, in 2014, Philips sold its stake to TPV. However, in India, the agreement was inked last year.

• TPV started selling Philips TV on Amazon May 2019 onwards
• Majority of sales comes from offline channels
• Philips to launch 15 global models in India in 2019 with focus on large screens 
• Its OLED TV, priced Rs. 2.5-3 lakh, will debut in India in August-September
• TPV on the lookout for sourcing partners to manufacture Philips TV in India 

"Our revenue from Indian operations is expected to double this year and may increase three times by 2020. This growth is primarily led by our Philips portfolio", Arun Menon, country business head of Philips TV & Audio at TPV told Business Standard.

Menon said that while the brand enjoys a high level of consumer trust and recall, it took a hit in the earlier years owing to service issues which the new brand licensee has started addressing. Philips, which was operating in India for more than 80 years, strategically shifted its focus to the healthcare and lifestyle segments and gave the licensing rights for their television and audio business first to Videocon and later to TPV.

Of the 30,000 outlets where Philips branded audio products are available, TPV has already roped in 2,000 and by the end of this year, the presence will increase to around 7,000 outlets. By the end of 2020, the count is expected to increase to 14,000 outlets.

“The contracts with large format retails like Croma, Reliance Digital and other local players like Vijay Sales are getting signed which will give a significant boost to sales”, he told this newspaper. 

These retail chains are expected to contribute 30 per cent to the total sales, while stores will account for 35 per cent. The rest of the sales are poised to come in from online.

Although TPV has an assembling plant in Tamil Nadu, it is looking at local sourcing and manufacturing and is scouting for partners.