Panasonic sticks to sales target despite demonetisation

Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic will stick to its target of clocking Rs 10,800 crore revenue in India this fiscal despite taking a 20 per cent hit in sales for November and December on account of demonetisation.
In the previous fiscal, the company had posted sales of Rs 8,700 crore.
"Approximately, in November and December, sales were down by about 20 per cent versus the forecast," Panasonic India & South Asia President & CEO Manish Sharma told PTI, when asked about the impact of demonetisation.
He, however, added: "We'd catch up with it in the fourth quarter (January-March). We are not revising our annual forecast. It still remains the same."

The company is expecting sales of cooling products to pick up from February which would be one of the growth drivers.
"We are extremely optimistic as far as sale of summer products is concerned... Sale of cooling products would pick from February onwards. For us, it would start from January onwards as we start to fill the inventories of trade partners," he said.

The company, which is expecting to double sales in next three years, will now focus on increasing production capacity of its existing units as it is now locally manufacturing all major products in India itself.
Sharma said Panasonic India is looking for a growth of almost 30 per cent next year.

"It is primarily because we are coming with a factory for air conditioners. We want to drive an exponential growth as we intend to double our sales in next three years. Out of Panasonic India's Rs 10,800 crore sales target for 2016-17, consumer durables is expected to contribute around Rs 4,800 crore and mobile phone segment would contribute around Rs 2,500 crore," he said.
Group firm Anchor Electricals is expected to register sales of Rs 2,500 crore while another Rs 1,000 crore would come from B2B products, Sharma added.
Panasonic, which is investing Rs 115 crore to set up a manufacturing plant at Jhajjar, Haryana, to locally produce refrigerators, said that presently it is producing almost all the major categories here and would focus on expansion of the existing capacity.

"After that, we would be focusing on expanding the capacities of the existing factories but nothing has been finalised as of now," he said.
However, Sharma also added: "Possibly, we would look at air purifiers next year but that would be a small investment as it would be small unit."
The company would continue to invest around 10 per cent of its sale on marketing.
"On marketing, we would continue to invest about 10 per cent of our revenue, which translates to around 500 crore in the next year. Those investment of marketing, sale and ad would continue," Sharma said.