Maker of Thomson, Kodak TVs expands capacity at Rs 150 crore

Targeting a turnover of Rs 600 crore this fiscal Thomson and Kodak brand television maker and marketer Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd is expanding its production capacity at its Nodia plant at an outlay of Rs 150 crore, a top company official said.

"We are expanding our capacity in our Noida facility adding a fully automatic production unit at an outlay of Rs 150 crore. The new unit will give additional production of about 35,000 - 40,000 units per month," CEO Avneet Singh Marwah told IANS over phone on Saturday.

He said the company currently has three plants - Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir, Una in Himachal Pradesh and Noida in Uttar Pradesh - with a combined production capacity of 60,000 - 70,000 units per month.

"The majority of the production is from our Noida plant. However, we have no plans to consolidate the production at one place," Marwah added.

According to him, the company imports only glass display panels-that account for 70 percent of the manufacturing cost per television- from Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China.

Queried whether it was not a big jump to target Rs 600 crore turnover this year from last year's figure of about Rs 250 crore Marwah said: "The market is good. Till Diwali our aim is to achieve a turnover of about Rs 350 crore. Sixty five per cent of the sales will be from Thomson brand and 35 per cent from Kodak brand."

According to him, the ensuing Diwali will see a sharp rise in sales of Ascreen sizes from 32 to 40 inches. There is already significant growth of smart televisions in India which will only increase by Diwali.

In terms of online sales there would be a 70 per cent increase in smart televisions and 30 per cent in non - smart category.

Apart from that, there is also a huge boost in demand for 4k -ultra high definition televisions in India. Content availability is getting much better with these smart television apps and some content which they have started showing in such sets, he added.

Selling the two television brands only through Flipkart, Marwah said the strategic partnership has made them available in more than 14,000 pin codes in the country including after sales service.

"The kind of visibility Flipkart is offering us in the online space is immense and which has helped us become one of the fastest moving smart TV brand in the country right now," Marwah claimed.

Not agreeing with the view that the company is a price point player Marwah said: "We are a super affordable category in the TV industry and our focus is to give better technology to the consumer at a competitive price point. We are an ROI (return on investment) based company and do not believe in burning money from day one to capture the market unlike other brands, because in doing that one would lose sales in long term."

--IANS

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