Shrinking Canvas Forces Tv Players To Prune Output

shrinking market and increased competition.

Mirc, the makers of Onida, has closed down three production plants situated at Delhi, Badarpur and Noida.

The Delhi unit was manufacturing black and white (B&Ws) and colour televisions (CTVs), the Badarpur plant was into the production of only CTVs while the Noida unit was involved in the making washing machines.

Industry sources claimed, the units closed their shutters within a span of three months. The closure was forced due to declining market share of the brand, they said. Mirc chairman, G.L.Mirchandani was, however, not available for comment.

The Delhi plant had an installed capacity to manufacture two lakh units of TV sets annually, while the Badarpur and Noida plants had annual capacities of one lakh TV sets and 1.5-2 lakh units of washing machines respectively.

 

Mircs manufacturing base in Wada, Maharashtra remains intact despite the companys declining market share in the northern parts of the country. Unconfirmed reports said, its share in the west is also under pressure from MNCs and two other Indian majors, BPL and Videocon.

The Delhi based, Crown Television, has also reduced its production of TVs in recent times as a result of the increasing pressures from the multinationals and a declining independent market share.

From three plants in Delhi manufacturing CTVs and B&Ws and its four different plants in Ahmedabad the company is now down to having just two units, one each at Gandhinagar and Delhi.

Deepak Jhaveri, director, Crown Television said, from smaller units which were forced to be set up in the 1980s, we shifted to two huge production facilities with modern set up. However, Jhaveri failed to explain the immoderate dip in production. According to industry sources from a peak of one lakh CTVs and 4 lakh B&Ws annual production, a couple of years back from its three plants in Delhi , the annual production has dipped to 30,000 B&Ws and 10,000 CTVs. Its four Ahmedabad plants which produced 2 lakh CTVs and 6 lakh B&Ws just a few years ago is today replaced by a single plant producing just 60,000 CTVs and 20,000 B&Ws. The production figures were confirmed by Jhaveri in a conversation with Business Standard.

K S Raman, president, Consumer Electronics and TV manufacturers Association said, while to a certain extent the re-location to bigger manufacturing bases is expected there is a growing tendency on the part of the industry to be dominated by majors both Indian and a few MNCs.

Salora, the Delhi based TV manufacturer claims, its three plants at Okha and one at Noida is intact. However, there are reports that, its total production dipped to one fourth its original level of one lakh CTVs and 4 lakh B&Ws per annum.

The Delhi based Weston TV with peak production figures of two lakh B&Ws and three lakh CTVs has cut production drastically, according to sources while the other TV major, Televista has stopped production. Severe production cuts have also been witnessed in units manufacturing CTVs like Solidaire, based at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

According to K S Raman, the entire scenario would also have to be weighed against the fact that we have costlier TV sets than those available in neighbouring countries.