Mumbai, Sept 26: BPL plans to enter the water purifiers, mixers, juicer grinders and rice cookers market by the year end. With this, BPL will become the complete home appliances company catering to all segments of the customer base. The new range of products will come from the kitchen appliances division of BPL with technical collaboration with cost effective foreign partners.BPL's regional product head (kitchen appliances) Mansoor Ali says,"We want to enter every segment of the market. So the thrust of our research and development would be to cater to all the needs of the Indian customer."
Currently, BPL has only three products in the kitchen appliances segment - microwaves, cooking range and gas tables.
In the mircrowaves segment, BPL has 35 per cent of the market share. BPL has three models in the category with a price range of Rs 8500 to Rs 25,000.
Closest rivals in this segment are LG, Samsung and Sharp.In the cooking range segment, the company has six models with a price range of Rs 19,000 to Rs 25,000. It has a 50 per cent of the market share. BPL Gas Tables have captured 70 per cent of the market share has a host of local players like Butterfly, Blueflame as competitors.Projected target growth of the kitchen appliances division is 50 per cent. One of the ways to achieve that would be by entering as many product categories as possible says Mr Ali.Entering every segment of the market is a strategy that BPL is following even in its entertainment electronics division. Conceived as a mid-segment brand, BPL is gradually inching towards the potential luxury market.
According to entertainment business heads like Parasuram Aiyer of the Maharastra region, the premium segment is poised for high growth with an increasing number of discerning customers.
Early this month BPL launched the PRO FX high end audio entertainment brand with technology from Denon of Japan. PRO FX will be the only range that would be directly retailed by BPL. The DVDs will be another thrust for growth according to Aiyer.
This product range comprises audiophile quality speaker systems, amplifiers, AV Receivers, Hi-Fi speartes and components for home theatre ranging from Rs 30,000 for an entry level system upto Rs 3,00,000 for the top end systems, mixers, consoles and other audio equipment.
The entertainment electronics division is divided into 11 regions with each region functioning as a profit centre, while the kitchen appliances section is divided into nine regions, each of which is again a profit centre.
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