Dubai: Panasonic Ecology Systems has seen a 33 per cent rise in global revenues to $1.45 billion (Dh5.33 billion) this fiscal year due to strong product offerings and customers’ care for healthy lifestyle.
“The Middle East and Africa is a major market for us, and our overseas business [outside Japan] stood at $564 million last year. In fact, our overseas business overtook Japan’s domestic sales for the first time last year,” Katsushigo Hayashi, managing director of Panasonic Eco-systems Japan, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
Panasonic Ecology Systems is in-charge of indoor air quality business, environment systems and engineering business under Panasonic Eco Solutions Group.
Hayashi said that our indoor air quality business is the “growth engine” because it has marked double-digit growth for the past few years.
“Our aim is to attain $611 million in overseas business this year. The ventilation and ceiling fan products have sold more than 1.3 million and 900,000 units respectively to nine countries in the region,” he said.
Citing a World Health Organisation report, he said that around 300 million people have been diagnosed with asthma and that figure is expected to increase to 400 million by 2025.
Citing the Middle East example, he said that one in three children have asthma. The increasing prevalence of asthma is a growing concern and Panasonic says it is determined to improve the lifestyle and combat the rapid increase with air purifiers as it can remove impurity from indoor air.
Stiff challenge
Japanese firms are facing a stiff challenge due to the growth in China-made products and weak yen.
Regarding this, he said that Japan is a mature market and it is difficult to register a good growth because of decreasing population and flat demand, especially for electrical products.
There are lots of Chinese products in Japan. “We strive to differentiate from them with quality and technology,” Hayashi said.
On the other hand, he said the awareness of indoor air quality is still low in overseas markets.
“So, we believe there are opportunities for robust growth as the awareness of ventilation is now becoming high due to sandy dust in the region. We understand that we need to focus on this issue and develop new products in the near future tailored for the region,” Hayashi added.
Out of the $611 million expected this year from overseas sales, Panasonic expects $100 million to come from the Middle East and Africa markets, compared to $69 million earned from the region in 2013.
“Our DNA has always been to focus on customers and improve their healthy lifestyle. Our priority is to return to the basics and thoroughly pursue customer value,” he said.
In line with the company’s increased focus on emerging markets like Africa, he said that our focus will be on Maghreb area in North Africa and North East Africa.
The Middle East and Africa region contributes around 12 per cent growth to Panasonic Ecology Systems division.
