Sony starts local manufacturing of Bravia TVs in Tamil Nadu

Japanese electronics major Sony's India arm on Tuesday said that it has started manufacturing of Bravia TVs after sealing an OEM partnership with Competition Team Technology (India) in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur.

"To begin with, Sony will start manufacturing two models, both Android TVs, in the initial phase. The first shipment commences from today, (August 4)," the company said.

"India has been an important strategic market for Sony and this development underlines our continued commitment to this market as well as our alignment with the government of India's 'Make in India' programme," said Sony India managing director Kenichiro Hibi.

"We see huge potential in the TV business as conversion from CRT TV to LCD TV by Indian customers is expected to accelerate over the next few years. There is also very high demand for technologically advanced products such as 4K and our newly-launched Android TVs. Keeping in mind this buoyant demand from customers in this market, it is likely that a big chunk of TVs sold in India may originate from this unit in the future," he added.

According to Sony, the decision has been taken after reviewing all aspects of its manufacturing operations, market situation and other factors such as product life cycle, lead-time and costs to ensure that the company remains competitive. Bravia is the highest selling category and contributes more than 40 percent to the overall sales of Sony India.