The consumer electronic industry is growing at a healthy rate of 35 per cent. I hope that this rate is sustained next year as well. But this industry is growing at a highcost due to which the contributions are going down slowly. The profits are still not as good as they should be since manufacturers are lowering the price to get more growth in the market and increase the market share.

Every manufacturer has his own strategies. Schemes boost sales to a great extend, especially in the festive season. As far as Akai is concerned, they have their own way to go around in the market. It does not bother us. If Akai can manage to sell through schemes then what is wrong with that. It depends on how genuine the schemes are.

I don't think that multinational companies are ruling the market, nor do I think that they are posing a threat to the domestic players. The market base has increased, but the major share is still with the domestic players like BPL and Videocon. Multinationals have managed to grabjust 4 to 5 per cent of the total market.

We have decided to put an end to our famous advertisement `Neighbour's envy, owner's pride'. Instead, our advertisements will have a changed outlook. We are working on a different theme which will pose a question to the viewers. The base line is `Ever seen television like this?'. The new advertisements will be coming out soon, which is being developed by Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. This year, the company has an advertising budget of Rs 35 crore. Apart from this, the company is taking several steps for regaining the lost market share.

In order to address the needs of the changing requirements of the consumers, Onida plans to introduce a new and divided range of products. The range will consist of a unique collection and techno-value collection. The techno-value collection will have better technology products like big and better sound televisions. The other features of the new range will be new looksand features accompanied with the latest technology.

We have not asked many people to leave. Due to the restructuring of the group, many people have left on their own while some were asked to leave. The rate, however, is not very high and I guess this happens when any change takes place in a company.

We are working out a different strategy, especially for streamlining the white and brown goods segment. We have now decided to deploy two branch managers instead of one for these two segments in all the 36 branches all over the country. This will help in developing a focussed approach towards our products.

Currently our growth rate is 11 per cent, we expect it to go up to 15 per cent next year. I guess that is possible as the consumer electronic industry is growing a good rate as compared to other industries.