HANGCHOW: Despite the soft economic conditions, Panasonic Malaysia expects to record sales of RM2bil this year compared with last year’s RM1.75bil. It had RM1.54bil sales in 2008.
Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd managing director Jeff Lee attributed this to the wide range of products sold in Malaysia as well as the strength of the brand.
“We are No. 1 in terms of sales in a number of product ranges, the first being air-conditioners, selling between 30,000 and 35,000 units a month in Malaysia.
“We are also very strong in the audio-visual products. In the last several months, we sold an average 12,000 plasma TVs a month because of the World Cup as well as the advent of the flat screen,” he said.
Lee was speaking to reporters after the company launched its second series of front-loading washing machines in Hangchow, China.
Lee, who took over as MD about three months ago, said it was the first time in more than a decade that the company decided to launch its product outside Malaysia although it was targeted at the local and other markets.
“We have always launched products in Malaysia, but this time we decided to do it differently. We decided to launch it here because this is where the factory that produces this washer is located,” he said.
The company expects to sell 5,000 units of the washing machines in Malaysia, which compares with the 4,000 front-loaders it sold last year. And although it sold 110,000 units of top-loaders last year, it decided to go into the front-loader market due to the demand in Malaysia and also because it wanted to enter the highly competitive European market.
“There is a perception that front-loaders are more efficient in terms of performance and demand, and we are working hard to enter the European market,” he said.
There will be three models in this latest series, with prices ranging from RM2,599 to RM3,099 a unit and with a capacity of 8kg per wash. They will be available in Malaysia soon.
Lee said Panasonic’s first generation of front-loaders enjoyed a 28.5% market share. With the second series going to market this month, it aims to capture 35% market share. The company invested between RM10mil and RM20mil in this new series. It aims to spend RM3mil in the first three months to promote the series.
On the group’s capacity to weather the soft economic conditions, Lee said much of the brand’s strength lie in the fact that it was firmly entrenched in Asia. It has little exposure in Europe and the United States but was working on making its presence felt in those markets, he added.
Lee said Panasonic’s Lumix range of cameras was extremely popular in France.
Locally, Panasonic was seeing a lot of competition but overall it was doing well, he said. In the audio-visual market, its closest competitor is Samsung.
Lee said for every product range, the company had managed to capture a large market share. Panasonic Malaysia has a 40% to 50% share of the fan market, 60% share of the rice-cooker market, and 67% of the phone products market.
By THEAN LEE CHENG
leecheng@thestar.com.my
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