Air-con sales expected to heat up Panasonic revenue

Despite intense competition, Panasonic AP Sales (Thailand) raised sales by 10 per cent to Bt10.6 billion last year, and expects to maintain the same tempo this year, managing director Takeshi Nomoto said yesterday.

A major driver will be air-conditioners, especially room A/Cs.

The company has set a challenging target of 20-per-cent growth this year, on top of 40 per cent last year, when its Thai sales were the fastest-growing in the region.

Hiroshi Komatsubara, chief sales officer of Panasonic’s air-conditioning unit, said the company had successfully expanded in Asean markets last year. It achieved an increase of 10 per cent in Malaysia, 16 per cent in the Philippines, 20 per cent in Indonesia and 30 per cent in Vietnam.

But Dai Nishi, general manager for the Marketing 1 Department (A/Cs, water heaters and B2B) at Panasonic AP Sales (Thailand) said: "We are not satisfied yet. We see big room to expand our sales in the Thai market. We’re still No 4, even with the big growth last year."

Room A/Cs account for about 90 per cent of the overall air-conditioning market in Thailand, which grew by 5 per cent last year.

Mitsubishi Electric is No 1, followed by Samsung, Daikin, Panasonic and LG.

Panasonic says it will achieve its ambitious sales target for room A/Cs by instituting three changes.

The product line-up will experience a full model change with higher energy-efficiency rates, and the Arrowings feature will be expanded to all products, not just the premium models.

The advertising budget will be boosted by 2.5 times from last year to Bt100 million to communicate its new products to consumers.

Marketing activities will include a caravan tour by its 7.3-metre-long container trucks at 30 major locations nationwide.

A/Cs contribute 35 per cent of Panasonic AP’s sales in Thailand, followed by 20 per cent from refrigerators and 10 per cent from washing machines. The company aims to grow its refrigerator sales by 9 per cent and washing machines by 4 per cent here. It ranks fourth in both the refrigerator and washing-machine markets.

Panasonic aims to move up to the No 2 spot in Thailand for both refrigerators and A/Cs and No 3 for washing machines by 2018, and to conquer the top position in the refrigerator market here by 2020.

The company has earmarked Bt200 million for advertising of all products this year. It expects the Bt61-billion home-appliance market to expand by 5 per cent, up from 2-3 per cent in 2015.

The challenges for Panasonic in marketing its A/Cs this year include completing the total model change, communicating the unique features of its new Sky Series and strengthening its modern-trade and speciality-shop channels.

Of its room A/C sales this year, 35 per cent are expected via its home-appliance dealers, 30 per cent through A/C speciality shops, 25 per cent through modern-trade outlets and the last 10 per cent through project sales channels.