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Philips Electronics setting up centre near Noida facility

Murali Sivaraman

CHENNAI: Philips Electronics India is setting up a development centre to explore emerging market-specific product possibilities in electronic lighting space. The facility will come up adjacent to its technology support centre in Noida.

The upcoming unit will be the company’ third such centre in the world. It already has a global product development centres in this specific category in the Netherlands and Shanghai in China.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Murali Sivaraman, CEO, Indian Sub-Continent of Philips, said that the centre would initially commence with 10-15 engineers but would eventually grow into a 30-40-member outfit in two to three years.

The move for the new centre must be seen in the context of the resource base in the country in terms of engineering talent pool. Mr. Sivaraman said that Philips as an organisation was focusing more on BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, which were considered emerging markets. Within the company, there was also a shift in the focus towards empowering the local management to develop the market that was relevant to the country.

The CEO indicated that the new centre could also become a research hub for works related to the needs of global markets. He said Philips had repositioned itself as a diversified health and well-being company. Further, the emphasis was now more on shaping the organisation around the requirements of individual markets. In this context, Mr. Sivaraman hinted that the company would bring in to the Indian market a host of value range products across the three verticals — lighting solutions, consumer life style and healthcare. The launch of water purifier, super mixer and the like fitted into this new thinking within Philips.

Lighting solution would be a dominant component of the company’s portfolio in India. Close to 40-45 per cent of the company’s sales of around Rs. 2,890 crore in 2007 came from lighting solution business with the consumer and professional sales accounting for 60 per cent and 40 per cent. Progressively, electronics was supposed to form a major component of the lighting solutions business, as the market started demanding energy-efficient devices. Philips would leverage the recent series of global acquisitions to lead in the Indian market place.

In the consumer lifestyle space, the company would assert its hold on the MP3 segment.

In the television arena, Philips was planning to bring in a lot of new products. Mr. Sivaraman also indicated that the company would launch a host of products in peripheral segment and in body-grooming space. In this context, he said that Philips would soon come out with mother and child products, specifically for newborns and mothers.

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