Weston Launches 32-Inch LED TV, Targets South India Market

Consumer electronics firm Westway Electronics Pvt. Ltd has launched LED TV sets in the affordable TV segment to cash in on the frenzy around the Indian Premier League (IPL), 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

The company sells its products under Weston TV brand. A 32-inch LED TV starts from Rs. 12,000 and entry-level Smart TVs are priced at Rs. 14,000. The brand entered Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala on 1 April and will enter Andhra Pradesh and Telangana soon.

“With this TV range, we are focusing on metro cities, as well as small cities,” said Sumit Maini, managing director, Weston Television. The firm has also launched washing machines and air coolers and aims to hit ₹1,000 crore turnover by the next fiscal year.

In the 1980s, Weston, along with Oscar, Beltek and Webel had a considerable market share in the TV market. However, after liberalization, these local brands could not compete with global companies such as Sony, Samsung, and LG.

“Questions could be raised about the feasibility of refreshing an old brand in a new market, especially when it looks saturated,” Devangshu Dutta, founder of consulting firm Third Eyesight, said. “However, the market in India is quite dynamic. In the end, success comes down to execution,” he added.

In 2013, The Economic Times had reported that Weston and its then peers had diversified into other businesses. While Beltek ventured into bottled water, real estate and digital broadcast equipment, Kolkata-based Webel had started IT infrastructure development.

Westway Electronics itself was not aggressive, with launching new models and advertising, as compared to Sony India Pvt. Ltd and Samsung India, among others. It is also difficult to sustain in the consumer TV business since the competition is tight and the margins are wafer thin.

Even the affordable segment, which was not tapped by many of these global companies, has been taken over by Xiaomi. The Chinese player, which launched its TV segment in 2018, already holds the no.1 spot, according to IDC Worldwide’s fourth quarter release. The company has six television products ranging between Rs. 10,000 to about Rs. 50,000. Xiaomi competes with Zenith Computer’s subsidiary Vu, and China-based TCL Corp., among other companies.

Currently, the television market is set to grow at a Rs. 502,696.8 million in 2018. The segment is expected to grow at 12.9% CAGR between 2018 and 2023, according to Euromonitor International, a market research provider. Livemint