Samsung India is targeting sales of more than $10 billion (about Rs 64,000 crore) this calendar year after having recorded nearly $9 billion in 2017, senior company executives told business partners during a recent global meet.
Sales will be driven by smartphones, premium television and appliances like refrigerators and washing machines, which will be the focus areas of the company this year, said three senior industry executives who were present in the annual strategy meet — Samsung Forum — held last week in Rome.
“Samsung India’s pace of growth had slowed down in 2017 which was attributed to demonetisation and impact of the roll out of goods and services tax, but it is confident to get back to the growth trajectory this year,” said one of the industry executives who was present at the event. “They are confident to exceed $10-billion sales despite stiff competition from Xiaomi in smartphones,” he said.
Another executive said while smartphones will continue to be the largest sales contributor, accounting for 60% of the sales, the balance 40% will be generated from consumer electronics driven by premium products.
“For instance, in the ultra-HD television segment, they want to increase market share from 37% to 43%,” he said. ET had recently reported that Samsung India’s sales in fiscal 2016-17 were around Rs 57,000 crore, growing by 27% over the previous year as it had reportedly filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The RoC has yet to make public the company financials. But for all business purpose, the South Korean consumer technology giant follows the calendar year.
An email sent to Samsung India did not elicit any response till press time. As per market trackers, Samsung is the country’s largest mobile phone maker in last calendar year, while it lost out to Xiaomi in smartphones and Reliance Jio Infocomm in feature phones in the October-December 2017 quarter, taking second spot in each. It is also the largest television and microwave oven maker in the country and the second largest in refrigerators and washing machines after LG.
