Mico To Unleash Blaupunkt Car Audio Via Boutiques

After roping in Mercedes Benz and Opel Astra for original equipment business, Mico-Bosch is all set to launch the high-end car audio system Blaupunkt in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta by the year end.

Already we come as original equipment on Mercedes Benz and have tied up with Opel Astra next year. But, before we introduce our product in the Indian metros we want to get our supply position in place. So by the year end or the first quarter of 1998, we should be launching these car audio systems in these four cities, Donald Payne, general manager, aftermarket & exports, Mico Bosch group, told Business Standard.

 

Mico-Bosch, which has imported around 4,000 Blaupunkt car audio systems of various models, is at present selling them only through an exclusive showroom in Bangalore. But the company hopes to hit the metro through Blaupunkt boutiques by the year-end once their production facility is in place.

With a long-term plan to capture this growing car audio market, the company was planning to start a manufacturing unit with a medium level capacity.

We have government approval, extensive tracts of land and machinery from Malaysia for the plant. But we are just waiting for some internal process within the company to be completed before starting off, Payne said.

The plant will be located in their existing Naganathapura facility in the Bangalore outskirts. Initially, they will prioritise and select the most popular models going in India to manufacture. It will begin manufacturing semi-knocked systems and slowly move over to being completely put together here.

Eventually, the company will work towards having a 70 per cent indigenisation in these systems. As in other Mico-Bosch manufacturing plants worldwide they may typically also begin manufacturing accessories or sets for their markets abroad.

The Rs 1,163-crore Mico-Bosch company, hitherto dealing with spark plugs and diesel in India, has for the first time flirted with an entertainment consumer electronic market. They have forked out nearly Rs 2 crore as advertisement expenditure to market this consumer item in India and giving out special gifts to their first 1000 customers in Bangalore.

The company is also talking to other car manufacturers for OEM supplies. Their Bangalore Blaupunkt showroom by a leading Maruti car dealer, has sold Blaupunkt goods worth nearly Rs 13 lakh in three weeks. However, customers seemed to prefer picking up just the Blaupunkt accessories such as speakers, amplifiers, CD changers, rather than a complete system.

Blaupunkt systems costing between Rs 1100 and Rs 1 lakh has been targeted at the top-end market. Its entry into the market is expected to cause many a treble for their competitors, especially the market leader Pioneer along with Phillips and Sony.

Blaupunkt, a subsidiary of the Bosch group has sold more than 70 million car radios throughout the world. It comes as original equipment on several cars worldwide such as Audi, BMW, Citroen, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Proton, Renault and the Volkswagen.