New Delhi, July 16: Japanese electronics major Sony India today said the rupee depreciation has hit the company’s profitability even as the company aimed to increase its revenues to 4,000 crore by the next fiscal.
“We import our products largely from Japan and Malaysia. Even though our sales are increasing, the rupee depreciation has certainly affected our profitability,” Masaru Tamagawa, managing director of Sony India, told The Telegraph. However, he refused to give away the exact amount by which the profits have been hit.
The Indian currency depreciated by 6.9 per cent against the US dollar in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
On price increase, Tamagawa said, “We have till now not increased the prices across our product categories.”
Explaining the company’s future strategy to counter the inflationary situation, he said, “We will try and launch products at slightly lower prices. This will give us the flexibility to increase the price at a later stage, if necessary.”
The company, which recorded a sales turnover of Rs 3,000 crore in 2007-08 fiscal, said it had nearly a 30 per cent market share in the LCD television segment. The size of the LCD television market is around one million and is expected to grow to three million by 2010.
Sony also plans to launch products such as a range of Vaio laptops and MP3 players by September. “We also have plans to bring a new range of digital imaging products by January-February next year,” Tamagawa said. To push the sales of LCD television, the company is doubling its budget for advertising and marketing to Rs Rs 60 crore.