Bose Corporation India GM Ratish Pandey (left) and Bose Asia Pacific director (marketing) Dominic Waters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, Oct. 4: Bose Corporation India (BCI) is all set to enter Calcutta by the year-end.

“We recently conducted a roadshow for three weeks over the weekends. The response was very good. We ended up selling a lot of our high-end products,” BCI general manager Ratish Pandey replied to a query on the demand for high-end audio products in a ‘value-for-money’ market like Calcutta.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of $1.7-billion US headquartered Bose Corporation had initially planned to enter Calcutta before the Puja. However, the plan got delayed as BCI did not get legal clearances for setting up shops.

The company is also trying to establish a stronger presence in Pune and the rest of the western region. BCI is currently present in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

The Indian subsidiary is also looking at the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility over the next five years.

“Yes, we are looking at that option as well. However, this will only be possible when there is a growth in volume sales. One has to reach such economies of scale before planning a manufacturing facility,” said Pandey.

At present, BCI imports its entire range of audio systems from its manufacturing facilities in the US. Bose Corporation has set up the remaining two facilities in Ireland and Mexico.

Refusing to divulge the financial details of the company, Pandey said, “We have been witnessing a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in our sales since the last three years.”

In India, BCI competes with two Japanese companies ? Onkyo and Nakamichi.

At present, the high-end audio market size is pegged at approximately Rs 100 crore. The company is focusing on selling more lower-end products as well. For its existing line of product categories, the price ranges from Rs 7,900 to Rs 2,29,900.

Meanwhile, the company today launched the extension options for its existing lifestyle systems.

The extension option will give audio connectivity to a lifestyle system in different rooms of a house using both wireless or wired format.

Pandey said the company was working at price revisions for its wide range of audio-video products and with duty cuts the prices too are likely to be low. He also mentioned that residential sales was fast overtaking institutional sales.