CONSUMER electronics firm Panasonic is aiming to increase its sales from the business-to-business (B2B) segment through the introduction of a new range of information-technology (IT) solutions products.
Nobuo Yasuhiro, president and chairman of the board of Panasonic Manuafacturing Philippines Corp., said the company is targeting P500 million of sales for the B2B segment, which now only accounts for 15 percent of its revenues.
The B2B segment pertains to corporate clients.
Revenue-growth expectation is at double digits this year, Yasuhiro said, after notching P6.5 billion in revenues in the fiscal year April 2014 to March 2015. He said 65 percent of sales can be credited to air conditioners and refrigerators.
Increased sales for the B2B segment will be driven by the demand of hotels, real-estate developers, the retail and banking industries, to name a few, for security, surveillance and visual-systems products.
Tetsumi Inoue, director for systems network and communications group, said the potential in these two product lines is ripe. For instance, the Iglesia ni Cristo-owned Philippine Arena purchased 11 projectors from Panasonic at P3 million each. Luxury condominiums may have a need for video intercoms, Inoue added.
The Philippine security market, specifically, is expected to be worth $35 million in 2015, a boon for the electronics firm.
Panasonic currently operates two factories in the Philippines: in Taytay, and Santa Rosa, Laguna, where it produces air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and electric fans.