KOCHI: British Physical Laboratories or BPL was founded in 1963 by TPG Nambiar in Palakkad, Kerala, as a company for manufacturing hermetically sealed precision panel meters for the defence forces. BPL was once the darling consumer electronics’ goods brand in the country. At one time, the company was India’s largest exporter of TVs. BPL TVs were sold in markets like Germany and UK. With the new-found energy, embracing e-commerce platform, the company now plans to make it big in the domestic as well as overseas market.
“We stopped exports when the EU started putting duty restrictions on imports. Our current focus is in India and the opportunities here are very good. We will assess our performance and take a call on exports to select markets after a couple of years,” BPL Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Ajit G Nambiar told Express. “Our strength is in the quality of our products and we really don’t need to prove that.
There are still 18 million Indians that use our products. And for a brand that has been re-launched purely based on demands from our loyal customers for many decades, it can not get better. Its almost as if we have re-launched with a major head start over the others. We want to continue producing quality products and make happier customers. Ecommerce is empowering brands to achieve that with real time customer feedback through reviews on Flipkart and engagement on social media,” he adds. At its peak, BPL had 28 factories with man power strength of about 9,000 workers.
But the brand was consumed by globalisation and increased competition. With e-commerce the brand has now found its breath. Currently BPL offers 24 inch, 32 inch and 40 inch LED TVs, Automatic and Semi Automatic Washing Machines. It will be introducing larger sizes and our smart television collection shortly with other large appliances.
BPL's entire consumer durable and appliances range is sold through Flipkart exclusively. We have no other sales channel for our consumer durables business, Nambiar details the strategy. With the recent launch in Kerala, BPL products are now available across India in all markets where Flipkart is available. The company is confident to close this fiscal with a revenue of Rs 100 crore and targets Rs 600 crore in three years.
“We have introduced high quality products, with the best possible after sales support through our partner Flipkart. We were probably the first to implement ‘Make in India’, even before Make in India was announced. While we have component factories at Palakkad and Bangalore, we are currently assembling our TVs at Himachal Pradesh due to favourable taxes and manufacturing incentives.
Once we introduce larger models we will manufacture them in our Bangalore facilities where we have sufficient capacities,” says Ajit Nambiar. He claimed that there are still 18 million Indians who use BPL products.