Sony expects 30 pc growth; mulls price cut

Mumbai, Dec 15: In the wake of Samsung and LG announcing price cut, Sony India has said it is waiting for 'an opportunity' to pass on the benefit to consumers. Sony India Sales Head Sunil Nayyar said "despite a reduction in excise duty, the adverse exchange rate fluctuations have been a reason for us to hold the prices for now. However we will definitely look for an opportunity where we can pass on the benefit to consumers." Nayyar further said, "we are working on it and consider it to be positive and are pretty sure that these initiatives will stimulate demand."

Last week Samsung and LG decided to marginally slash prices of plasma and LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, refrigerators and washing machines. The move by these consumer durable companies was pursuant to the government slashing Cenvat by 4 per cent across the board to boost demand as part of package to stimulate the economy, hit hard by the global financial crisis.

This year durable industry suffered due to increase in input costs declining demand and adverse exchange rate fluctuations.

Echoing similar sentiment Nayyar said "both the appreciating yen in the first half of the year and the depreciating rupee, has lead to a double impact on our import costs. But till now, we have not passed on this cost to our customers."

For the current financial year Sony India is maintaining its 30 per cent growth projection despite recessionary fears largely due to the fact that the company reported robust sales till October.

"November onwards there has been a slowdown in the market but since we had registered robust sales till October we maintain our growth estimates of 30 per cent for the current fiscal year," Nayyar added. He however said "under the current circumstances the company expects a slowdown in the next financial year and has kept its growth projection at 20-25 per cent."

OneIndia News (With inputs from agencies)