Spot Ends Firmer, Forwards Softer
If you want critics of the Philips business strategy, you won't have to look very far. Just dial the Philips Employees Union (PEU), a 450-member grouping, in Mumbai. Kiron Mehta, an ex-employee who heads the union, is clear the transnational is up to no good.
His biggest grouse is that Philips doesn't want to carry out manufacturing activities or generate employment. If Mehta sounds a conspiracy theorist, check with other union sources. They point out that nine units and divisions have been sold since 1987-88. Tthese include welding electrodes, which was sold to ESAB in 1987-88 and in 1990-91, the medical systems unit was transferred to a new company PMS India , which has a majority shareholder in Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (KPENV).
The same year, the professional systems factory was disposed of while the software division was transferred to a new company Origin India, which again has majority shareholding by KPENV. In 1995, the mobile radios unit was sold to Simoco and a year later, the computer-related activities were transferred to Philips Software Centre, a KPENV company. In 1998, the electronic weighing machines and car systems division were sold and this year the components undertaking at Loni is to be sold to BC Components as the result of Philips' global realignments.
Says Mehta, "The management is turning the company into an empty shell." Now the union believes the lighting factory at Kalwe will go on the block in 2000-01. An inside source alleges that the gameplan for lighting is that within a couple of years all lighting activity in India will be conducted by Punjab Anand Lamp Industries, in which Philips Eindhoven has a 51-per cent stake and Philips India roughly 24 per cent.
Allegations of