Mumbai: Panasonic India plans to evolve from selling consumer appliances such as a televisions or refrigerators to providing complete solutions for a house or community, said Manish Sharma, president and chief executive officer, Panasonic India and South Asia.
Globally, 78% of Panasonic’s revenue come from business-to-business (B2B) services such as providing storage solutions or smart solutions. This includes security and surveillance systems. However, the situation in India is the opposite, because of its legacy as a electronic appliances maker, said Sharma.
For Panasonic India, consumer appliances, including mobile phones, accounts for 50% of its revenue. Including sales of group company Anchor Electricals Pvt. Ltd, it accounts for about 80% of revenue, said Sharma.
In Japan, the company is also known to build houses and provide everything that a household requires, from living spaces to kitchen solutions.
“In India, we will not build houses, but we are diversifying our portfolio of services,” Sharma said.
Over the last three years, the company has entered into the market for energy storage systems with the introduction of its lithium ion battery range. About a year-ago, the company set up its first India innovation centre in Bengaluru to create country-specific solutions. It is now looking at building a consulting service that will offer different verticals like manufacturing, logistics retail and supply chain solutions.
“This division will consolidate the efforts of all those who are behind the scenes by bringing our diversified products together,” said Sharma.
“Consumer appliances will remain our identity, but we will increase our focus on B2B solutions, a core competency for our parent,” said Sharma, adding that the consumer appliances division will double its revenue in the next three years. The firm exited financial year 2018 with revenues of ₹10,200 crore, up from ₹9,600 crore a year-ago, said Sharma.
India’s ₹72,000 crore consumer durables industry grew at a rate of 7.5-8.5% in financial year 2018 and is expected to grow in double digits during the current financial year, according to the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers, an apex all-India body of the consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile industry.