Weston expand product line beyond colour TV, DVD

Lucknow, Dec 8 (UNI) Indian electronic goods major Weston today announced foray into product lines beyond its staple colour TV and DVD player portfolio.

The company has launched microwave oven and home theatre system, besides a new range of DVD with LCD display and DVD recorder to compete with MNCs and its bigger Indian peers.

Addressing a news conference here this afternoon, Mr Sunil Sethi, Senior Vice President (Sales and Marketing) said the sale of Weston colour TVs went up by 20 per cent last fiscal.

''Of the Rs 400 crore consolidated turnover in 2005-06, colour TVs accounted for the major pie,'' he informed.

Mr Sethi said the company has set up a new manufacturing unit at Noida with an investment of six crore rupees to meet the deadline of supplying 0.9 million 14 inch colour TV sets to the Tamil Nadu government.

''Our group company Dixon Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd was awarded the contract after a global tender was floated by TN to provide colour TV sets to economically weakers sections of the society,'' he added.

The company intends to complete the contract in flat 10 months starting January 2007.

''We competed with top Indian, Chinese and Korean firms in the business, but were awarded the largest chunk of supplying 0.9 million colour TVs due to our high R&D standards and premium offerring,'' he maintained.

The ISO 9002 company, Weston is aiming for Sigma 6 certification in the next fiscal.

''The Indian economy is thriving and hungry for more success. In the next financial, we expect new product contribution of 20-30 per cent in the turnover,'' he noted.

Commenting on the Uttar Pradesh market, Mr Sethi claimed Weston was number one colour TV vendor in Varanasi district and among the top in the entire eastern UP region.

''UP accounts for almost 10 per cent of Weston's annual turnover and we plan to up that figure,'' the company official later told UNI.

Headquartered at Noida in UP, Weston has 20 branch offices in the country and sells its products through a strong network of 1,500 retail outlets.

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