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Boby Kurian

BANGALORE, Nov. 25

THIS Diwali was surely different for BPL, the leading domestic consumer durables company.

After topping the Indian colour television business for a decade, the brand, failed, for the first time, to make it to the top five CTV makers, if the primary sales figures, obtained from the trade, for October are of any indication. Historically, October-November, dotted with festivals, witness peaking of consumer durable sales.

The Indian colour television companies sold around nine lakh CTVs to the trade in the month of October, which was one of the best for business in recent years. The industry figures suggest that LG sold 1.82 lakh units followed by another chaebol, Samsung, with 1.56 lakh. Onida came third with sales of one lakh sets and Videocon - pegged between 85,000 and 90,000 - occupied the fourth slot. The Japanese brand Sansui in which the promoters of Videocon hold a strategic stake surprised industry observers by staking claim to the fifth place with sales close to 80,000 sets.

This left BPL, which sold close to 66,000 sets, out of the top five in a crucial month when it could have bounced back after surrendering the leadership to LG in past two successive months. "It was a chance for BPL to get back but instead we saw the brand slipping away," said an analyst who did not want to be named. The company insiders to whom this newspaper spoke to admitted to the abysmal sales in October but said the brand would put up a better show in the current month.

Ironically, the dip in primary sales coincided with a festive season bonanza which BPL had announced for the trade. It had wooed the trade by announcing a scheme to take the top 125 dealers to South Africa for the upcoming world cup cricket finals.

"There is still enough kick in the brand and its fundamentals for a comeback. We had some production constraints in October which reflected in our primary sales," the company sources claimed. These sources added that the ORG-GFK data of retail audit for the month of October, which tracks secondary sales from trade to consumers, would place the brand in a better position. For BPL, CTVs have been the flagship business with annual sales crossing one million in the last three successive years.

A few weeks ago, a section of the media quoted the company officials saying that the brand may not meet sales projection of 1.25 million sets in the current financial year. This comes at a time when the CTV industry - in sight of another sales surge on account of the World Cup in February - is expecting sales to touch seven million units in 2002-03, up from 5.6 million in the previous year. The TPG Nambiar family, promoters of BPL, is hoping to complete a financial restructuring to tackle a debt burden in excess of Rs 750 crore by early next year and be ready to tap the cricket mania.

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