Philips India- a subsidiary of the Dutch consumer electronics giant Royal Phillips, has initiated discussions with major modern multi format retail players like Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail and Tata owned Trent for poosible tie-ups, to shore up volumes of various consumer electronic products being offered by the company in the country. Philips products are already available in Kishore Biyani owned Big Bazaars and e-zones.
Philips has also embarked on scaling up its own retail operations. It plans to increase the exclusively branded “Philips Arena” stores from current 45 to 100 stores, within a period of one year.
Philips has recently entered the flat panel TV display (FPD) segment with ‘Ambilight’ FPDs, which are priced between Rs 30,000 and Rs 2.5 lakh. By next year, Philips expects to sell 50,000 units of these FPDs with a projected turnover of around Rs 225 crore. Philips would spend about Rs 40 crore on brand promotion during 2007.
