Japanese multinational electronics company Panasonic hopes to maintain the growth momentum of 10-15 per cent in India in 2024 amid rising demand across product categories covering both individual and business consumers.

“We are present in multiple business segments in India. Total turnover last year was around ₹100 billion in India,” said Fumiyasu Fujimori, MD, Panasonic Marketing India and deputy MD, Panasonic Life Solutions India, on the sidelines of Refcold India 2024 event in Calcutta.

“Out of that almost half is coming from electric works, around 1/4th is coming from HVAC (heating, ventilation and ACs) and the rest is from other consumer electronics and devices,”

“We are experiencing a 10-15 per cent growth this year, depending upon the product category. We hope to maintain this growth momentum going forward,” said Fujimori.

The major growth driver is air conditioners, but Fujimori said the company is seeing demand in refrigerators and other consumer electronics such as microwaves and washing machines.

On the business side, the company is seeing demand for smart, energy-efficient cold chain products tailored to the Indian market for supply chain efficiency.

“Being a multiple product category company, our aim is to offer value propositions for a variety of customers in India — both in the B2B and B2C segments. Earlier we had seen the Indian market was more price-conscious. Now there is more value consciousness. We are therefore looking at more product lineups, especially on the consumer durables side, where we can offer more value to the consumers,” he said.

Panasonic had announced the IoT and AI-enabled platform Miraie in 2020 and Fujimori said the company is building on the platform to offer more connected solutions to its customers. The company is also looking at introducing more smart consumer electronics products.

“Some products already have AI functions. For example, in the washing machines, we can identify and detect types of stains. Last month we introduced preventive maintenance functions in AC,” he said.

Panasonic has 11 factories, three R&D centres and 900 plus service centres
in India.

Fujimori said that additional capacity, particularly in the residential air conditioner segment, may be considered in future if the company sees persistent growth in
the category.