Tanvi Shukla

Mumbai: On the back of numerous product launches covering a wide portfolio, greater brand visibility, and its global Japanese brand image, Toshiba is targeting $1 billion revenue from India by 2015.

“We are aiming to achieve $1 billion revenue from our business in India by 2015. More than 50% of this should come from digital products and white goods,” said Yuzo Kato, managing director, Toshiba India Pvt Ltd.

Currently, a large chunk of Toshiba’s business in India comes from laptop sales. It has 5% market share in India and aims to increase this to 15% in the next 2-3 years through new designs and innovations. The company recently ended its exclusive distribution tie-up with HCL and has signed on three more distributors - Compuage, Ingram Micro and Redington.

Last summer, Toshiba India, a 100% subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corporation, introduced premium products from its global portfolio in categories such as refrigerators, airconditioners, washing machines and LCD televisions. Several new models were added to each category recently.

Pranab Mohanty, country manager, consumer product division, said, “Toshiba is aiming to capture 10% market share in each of the categories by 2010, with plans to grow over 100% growth this year. Our current business size of consumer appliances is around Rs 50 crore.”

Despite high revenue and market share targets, Toshiba seems to be very selective about its visibility. It has just 150 outlets, including 30 organised retail ones. An exclusive “Toshiba innovation pleasure” showroom is being test-piloted in Gurgaon.

If the pilot is successful, an innovation pleasure showroom will open in all metros. All the products are being imported from Thailand and Indonesia.

Toshiba India has no immediate plans of setting up a manufacturing facility here.

When asked how the company perceives competition, with so many international manufacturers already established, especially Korean companies such as Samsung and LG, Mohanty said, “Indians have a positive perception of Japanese brands. So regardless of success of Korean companies, I think we should have no problem in getting our share of the pie.”

Toshiba has also signed its first steam turbine generators order from Tata Power last August for $350 million.

“Talks are on for more projects, but nothing concrete can be announced yet” said Kato.

Source : DNA