According to information from the newspaper La Nación, Sansei, the main manufacturer of household appliances in Argentina, was awarded the license of the JVC brand for the market of this country in the south of the continent. It also recently announced that it will invest US$15 million to start manufacturing LCD televisions and digital camcorders in Tierra del Fuego. In this way, Sansei will add the Japanese line that until now was distributed in the country by another local company (Audivic). This determination will allow the Argentine firm to face the loss caused by Sony's decision to discontinue Aiwa's operations in the world.
Until now, JVC's presence in the Argentine market was limited to the sale of digital cameras, a segment in which it has a 30% share of the market. Among the projections that Sansei has to reposition the brand are the immediate launch of an LCD line, which is already being manufactured in the plant that has Electronic System, one of the companies of the conglomerate in Ushuaia.
As pointed out by Alejo Pablo Alonso, business manager of Electronic System, "for the first year we aspire for JVC to reach a share of between 5 and 7 percent in the LCD screen market, which we estimate will be around 300,000 units." The executive also pointed out that the plans for that brand also include the launch of new product lines such as: autostereos, home audio systems and professional video equipment.
Although at first glance the current situation of the appliance business does not seem the most favorable to launch an expansion, because it is expected to be one of the markets most affected by the global economic crisis, in Sansei it is thought that the impact will not be the same in all sectors of the market and that there are items that continue to present growth prospects. At least they believe they won't be hit hard by a very steep drop in demand.
Precisely on this aspect Alonso spoke and said that "in the market of televisions, the crisis may cause the replacement of tube equipment by LCD equipment to be slower, but it will continue. We also see positive prospects in audio segments. Today there is already a drop in sales of MP3 and MP4 players, but we expect a rise in equipment that combines audio and DVD."
Finally, and as far as prices are concerned, the executive considers that the decline evidenced in recent weeks in the retail values of electronics products will hardly continue in 2009. "Prices in this area are driven by international factors and in principle we do not expect a new fall during the coming years," Alonso explained. Sansei records sales in excess of $1 billion annually. The holding company controls two companies: Electronic System and NewSan.
