India displaces Brazil, Russia to become fourth largest market for Sony

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony today said its Indian operations have emerged as its fourth largest globally, overtaking businesses in Brazil and Russia by the end of December quarter this fiscal.

The sluggish demand in developed nations has helped the company's growing subsidiary Sony India, which has clocked a revenue of over Rs. 6,000 crore during April-December period in 2012-13, to improve its position in global ranking.

"The Indian operations has become the number four in global ranking. We have overtaken Brazil and Russia, which were ahead of us in last fiscal," Sony India Managing Director Kenichiro Hibi told reporters here.

The existing top three positions are held by the US, China and Japan, he said without sharing details.

"We have almost touched last year's revenue... We are completely on our track to treble our turnover to Rs. 20,000 crore by 2015," Hibi said.

The Indian operations' revenue for 2011-12 was Rs. 6,313 crore compared to Rs. 5,446 crore in the previous fiscal. The company is expecting 30-40 percent growth in this fiscal.

Sony India's achievement comes at a time when its parent is reporting losses due to unfavourable foreign exchange rates, impact of tsunami in Japan, floods in Thailand and adverse market sentiments in developed countries.

Sony Corporation reported 9.58 percent fall in its sales for the year ending March 31, 2012, at 6.49 trillion yen. Its net loss also widened to 456.7 billion yen in the year.

For the quarter ending September 30 last year, the Japanese major incurred a net loss of 15.5 billion yen. Its sales stood at 1,604.7 billion yen.

Asked about the growth driver for Sony India, Hibi said: "Bravia, Vaio and Xperia are the major contributor to our rise. These three have contributed 70 percent of our revenue."

He further said the Indian operations is contributing 5-10 percent of Sony Corp's global revenue at present and it "has the potential to grow".

When asked if Sony India will be able to move further in the ranking, Hibi said: "The gap between Japan and India is very big, but the growth rate in India is higher than that of the parent... The headquarter is focussing more in India and it is a very strategic market."

To expand its presence further, the company is looking to customise products more to meet Indian customers' demand, he added.

The company will also introduce more "affordable and entry-level products, mostly TV sets, but with certain premiumness" in India during next year.

Hibi, however, said the company does not have any plan to set up an assembly line in India at present despite "demand for our products are rising".