After tying up with Videocon for TV, Philips wants to focus on smaller segments of the consumer electronics market where the Koreans aren’t aggressive Philips wants to grow at double the rate of the country’s gross domestic product. With the government confident of 9 per cent growth in the current financial year, the task for Philips is cut out: It has to grow its business at least 18 per cent. Philips has three businesses in India: Lighting, healthcare and consumer lifestyle. It is the largest player in the lighting industry and has ambitions to grow healthcare — it has selected futuristic products from its global portfolio for India, and has grown through acquisitions. The challenge is in the third category of consumer lifestyle. While lighting grew 12 per cent and healthcare 22 per cent, consumer lifestyle declined 11 per cent in 2009, pulled down by Philips’ TV business.Other than TVs, Philips’ consumer lifestyle portfolio comprises audio-video multimedia, home appliances and personal care. These grew by 13 to 18 per cent last year. The largest chunk is audio-video multimedia — around 55 per cent. “One of our biggest businesses is audio-video multimedia. It is in line with our aim to operate in the space of health and wellbeing. Wellbeing got defined in our consumer studies as a state of happiness. Our audio-video multimedia business, through entertainment, takes care of just that,” says Philips India Vice-president and Sales Organisation Leader Mahesh Krishnan.For Complete news Visit here
