Thomson Aims To Double Turnover
Thomson Consumer Electronics India (TCEI) is planning to double its turnover to Rs 400 crore in the next two years. TCEI is a subsidiary of one of the world's largest consumer electronics groups, US-based Thomson Multimedia.
Thomson plans to achieve this by increasing its share of the colour TV market in India from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, said V K Chopra, managing director, TCEI in a select cat with newsmen. In 1997 TCEI sold about 1,03,000 colour television sets.
TCEI is planning to increase its turnover in two phases. It hopes to realise Rs 300 crore through the sale of 1.6 to 1.7 lakh sets in 1998 and Rs 400 crore in 1999 through the sale of two lakh sets.
The company will not have to invest in new manufacturing capacities as the existing one in Chennai already has an installed capacity of 2,00,000 colour TV sets. However, it does not own these facilities but sub-contracts the production of its CTVs to Dynavision. The company has a presence in the middle and upper end of the CTV market.
It unveiled the Colrtrack-RCA brand at Mumbai on Monday.
The company is planning to raise about Rs 23 crore as debt in order meet working capital requirements.
Chopra said that discussions were on with two banks, a multinational and a nationalised bank. He, however, declined to reveal names.
TCEI is a joint venture between Thomson Multimedia and the Obul Reddy group. The latter holds 49 per cent in the venture. Dynavision is an Obul Reddy group company.
The $ 16 billion conglomerate entered India in September, 1994 with the launch of its range of CTVs, audios and videos. Thomson products were first launched in Kerala and later extended to other parts of India.
TCEI has developed a sales network comprising more than 1500 retailer dealers.