Philips India is expecting Rs400 crore worth of sales in the upcoming festival season and is taking measures to s achieve its target. First the company has slashed prices on its range of consumer electronic goods for the season and has set aside Rs20 crore to spend on advertising and promotional activities during this period.

The company expects to touch Rs1,000 crore in consumer electronics business during the current fiscal against over Rs700 crore last fiscal and aims to double its business from consumer electronics to Rs2,000 crore in three years. With this, the company aims to be slotted among the top four consumer electronics brands in the country.

According to Suresh Sukumaran, the Philips India consumer electronics business head, the company was confident of achieving the sales target of Rs400 crore this Diwali season compared to around Rs300 crore achieved in the same period last year.

Sukumaran said, "We have firmed up most aggressive prices for our entire product range for the Diwali season, which nobody in the industry is offering today. We are also launching some new products for the first time during the festive season," he said.

Sukumaran said the company currently enjoyed a market share of 6.7 per cent in the CTV segment and was aiming to improve its share to over 8 per cent by the current fiscal.

The CTV market is expected to grow at 8 per cent to around 75 lakh units this year compared to around 71 lakh units last year. The real growth is coming from flat and large screen televisions he said.

According to him among the different product categories DVDs are expected to contribute around Rs200 crore of revenues this year, while home theatres would begin contributing at least Rs150 crore per annum from next year.

Company officials said there is tremendous potential to grow the CTV market as these have penetrated just about 20 per cent of the households. The highest penetration of CTVs is in Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Kerala and Punjab. In Tamil Nadu, the penetration is about 26 per cent, he said.

Unlike Videocon, Philips India has always resisted joining price wars. Late last year, however, Philips introduced its low-priced CTV range Vardaan and has seen sales soar by around 25 per cent. Already, the Vardaan range accounts for nearly 60 per cent of its CTV sales.

Philips'' CTV sales in the first quarter of 2004, went up by more than 25 per cent compared with the same period in 2003. Encouraged by this Philips also cut prices of its DVD players and home theatre systems by 15-20 per cent early this year. The company now has a home theatre system that costs Rs16,000 and the new DVD carries a price tag of Rs3,990 while its 29-inch CTVs are priced on par with competing 25- inch CTVs brands. Philips has always maintained its premium price positioning and the present affordability drive is a departure from its earlier stance.

Philips is placed fifth in the 85 lakh units-a-year CTV market behind LG, Samsung, Videocon and Onida, and according to industry estimates, it has a market share of a little more than 5 per cent.