Sony to manufacture Bravia televisions at Foxconn's Chennai plant

Sony has entered into agreement to manufacture its Bravia line of televisions at Taiwanese contract manufacturer major Foxconn's plant near Chennai. 

"With Bravia television being locally manufactured in India from this year, we expect sales to accelerate over the next few years," Sony India Head Sales Satish Padmanabhan said.

South Korean maker Samsung, which has completed its 20 years in India, also continued to invest more to boost its manufacturing capacity at its Noida and Chennai units.

"Samsung made investments in production and research and development at our factories in Noida and Chennai and in our R&D Center in Bangalore and Noida. This includes expansion at the Noida mobile phone facility. All these points to our commitment to India, and our firm belief that India is the future," a Samsung spokesperson said.

This year, a number of companies also expanded their product portfolios here while many forayed into the air purifier market as well.

"The year 2015 has been defined by certain innovative technology trends in the consumer durables industry. Today we have machines that are intuitive and learn and act accordingly with very little or no human contact," LG India's Head of Corporate Marketing Niladri Datta said.

During the festive period such as Diwali, which is also considered auspicious time for buying new products, the durable makers witnessed 25% growth in volume.

"Factors like rising disposable income and urbanization of consumers, and easy finance options lead the industry recording a growth of 25% during festive season and with positive impact on demands for flat TVs (14.5 mn units), refrigerators (10.12 mn), washing machines (4.86 mn)and ACs (3.86 mn)," said CEAMA's Sharma, who is also Managing Director Panasonic India & South Asia.
However, some concerns also emerged for the the sector in 2015.

EY India Partner and National Leader Retail and Consumer Products, Pinakiranjan Mishra said, "It has not been any special or great in general.
Obviously, there is a growth but had then been able to access the global market, the situation would have been far far better and I think that there is an opportunity to do so because make-in-India as China is getting more expensive now."

In 2015, durables makers also faced a decline in rural sales due to monsoon deficit.

"We saw growth across consumer segments and this was partly because of the growing base and needs of the middle class buyers. The surge in aspirations of youth in small towns and tier-II cities, who clearly understand their gadget needs, have led to a greater number upgrading the technology products, be it smartphones, televisions and home appliances, among others," the Samsung India spokesperson said.

The companies are betting on further rise in growth rates in 2016.

"Buoyed by the current progress, the industry will continue to grow, aided by the policy changes made by the Government of India. The product categories which will see a major fillip in 2016 are high-end Television, Air conditioners and Smartphones," CEAMA's Sharma said.