Domestic television manufacturer Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd(SPPL), on Tuesday, announced a Rs300-crore investment in India, phased over three years, to build its manufacturing capacities. The company said the investment will go towards strengthening its capabilities in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to meet the demand of the “new Indian customer”.
“In 2020, we focused on expanding our manufacturing capacity and market presence with an investment of Rs500 crore. Now, we will be expanding our IoT investment so we can continue to give competition to phone brands that are entering into the TV category. With the new pipeline, we are confident that we can capture more than 10% of market share by the end of 2021,” said Avneet Singh Marwah, director and chief executive officer (CEO) of SPPL.
SPPL is the brand licensee for international TV companies such as Kodak and Thomson. The company said the investment would help Kodak’s HD LED TVs “disrupt the market” and help address consumers’ work from home needs. The company’s TVs will connect to other smart home devices and it will also develop a mobile application to integrate TVs and appliances, which will work through voice commands. In a conversation with Mint earlier, Marwah said the company is tying up with Google for the AndroidTV platform as well.
As reported by Mint last month, television manufacturers in India are ramping up capacities with expectations of a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme from the government. Marwah said at the time that the company would invest Rs200 crore over the next three years to set up two new plants in India. This will double the company’s current capacities to about three million TVs per year.
Competitor Videotex International Private Limited is also setting up a new factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Videotex currently produces about 2 million TVs per year in India but will double its capacities to about 4 million by the end of the year. Videotex manufactures TVs from brands such as Toshiba, Realme and Hisense.
