Sanyo India keen on launching other products

Sanyo Electric Co, which is relaunching its colour televisions in India through a joint venture with BPL, today said that it was also keen on introducing other commercial and industrial equipment in the country. Toshimasa Iue, president, Sanyo, said, "We hope to make India a pillar of our future growth."

Ajit Nambiar, chairman and managing director , BPL, and chairman and CEO, Sanyo BPL, said that with the industries such as retail and hoteliering growing at a faster pace, the company's products have good potential for growth.

Iue and Nambiar had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this context in New Delhi yesterday. Though the technical collaboration between Sanyo and BPL started in 1983, it was only in December 2005 that the companies formed a 50:50 joint venture to market Sanyo products in the country.

While televisions will be sold under the BPL brand, the other products will be sold under the Sanyo brand. The ad and marketing campaign will be out next month, said Nambiar.

The company already has a distributors' network of about 2,500 outlets which it will ramp up in one year. "Our consumer products will target the high end middle class and our industrial and commercial products, such as industrial air conditioners and cold chain systems, will be aimed at commercial establishments like supermarkets," said Iue.

When the joint venture was set up, the company had said that it expected five per cent of its global sales to come from India for a few years.

Already, the overseas market contributes 49 per cent to Sanyo's overall turnover. The company had posted net sales worth $23,330 million consolidated for the year ended March 2005.