Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the exclusive brand licensee for Kodak and Thomson in India, is set to invest ₹300 crore over the next three years to set up an R&D center with a focus on IoT technologies.
Avneet Singh Marwah, Director & CEO of Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd said, this investment will enable the company to strengthen its in-house innovation and design capabilities with a focus on IoT and AI technologies and meet the evolving needs of consumers.
Stating that by 2023 there will be one million smart home devices in the Indian households, Marwah added the company expects its Kodak TVs range to give stiff competition to mobile phone companies that have recently entered the TV segment with enhanced IoT capabilities.
“We believe these investments will help us to strengthen our market share to over 10 per cent in the TV segment this year. We are also putting in place other strategies to grow brand Kodak’s presence in the offline channel. We have recently significantly ramped up our offline distribution across both large-format stores and general trade stores. We have also added new distributors,” he said.
This year, Kodak TVs will have 1,000 service centers and the products will be available in more than 70,000 counters across the country. Marwah said the firm hopes to close the current fiscal year with ₹800 crore revenues.
Last year, the company had announced an investment of ₹500 crore to set up a new TV manufacturing facility at Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, and expects to make one million units by the end of the year. The brand has also introduced a line-up of 10 new models in 2021 under the brand Kodak.