NEW DELHI: Facing intense competition from Chinese smartphone makers and Reliance Jio’s onslaught on the feature phone segment, home-grown electronics maker Intex Technologies is shifting its focus more towards consumer durables to sustain growth in the coming years.
The company said it will invest around Rs 500 crore (in a phased manner) in its upcoming plant in Greater Noida, where it will soon commence manufacturing of washing machines and air conditioners (AC), along with mobile phones. “Our major focus is on consumer durables right now. Recently, we have strengthened our range of ACs and refrigerators. In future, we will increase our market share in these categories. Mobile phones, as everyone is aware of, are on the downward side,” said Nidhi Markanday, Director of Intex Technologies. Last fiscal, Intex’s consumer durable and IT business jointly did a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore.
Markanday said that in the domestic AC market, the company eyes a market share of five to six per cent by 2020. Last year, it sold 50,000-60,000 units of ACs, roughly one per cent of the market size.
“The penetration level for ACs is very low in India. We see a lot of opportunity for us to grow in the segment as our ACs give similar features at 10-20 per cent lower price when compared to other branded ACs,” Markanday said. The company wants its consumer durables business, along with IT business, to contribute half of its annual revenue.
At its peak, Intex’s revenue stood at Rs 6,200 crore in FY16. Almost 90 per cent of it came from mobile phone business. However, with the arrival of Chinese brands such as Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, its revenue plunged by nearly 30 per cent in the next fiscal. The company is yet to disclose its FY18 numbers, but has set a target of Rs 4,500 crore revenue for FY19, with no major recovery in mobile phone business.
Intex has no plans to exit the mobile phone market. It will consolidate its feature phone business and launch a full screen smartphone in next two months. “The numbers we see today is those numbers that will sustain or go up,” Markanday said.
