Mr. Toshiro Ishiwatari, Chairman of Toshiba Lifestyle Products and Services Corporation (TLSC) in Japan, says that Toshiba never stops innovating new products with Japanese design and manufacturing standard in order to meet consumer's need. The company pays a great deal of attention to the improvement of life quality and lifestyle of consumers. With the synergy of TLSC and Midea, we place great emphasis on creating products that meet the demand of Global Market, and expand our product lines.
In addition to this, Mr. Toshiro Ishiwatari also confirms TLSC's intention to invest in Thailand in terms of manufacturing base, product development, sales and marketing, and that Toshiba will continue to grow sustainably and move forward together with Thai people. We place great emphasis on developing good products with Japanese quality, with great consideration to consumer's demand and lifestyles, in order to bring good things to life of Thai people, as our slogan stated.
Mr. Brian Zhao, President of Toshiba Thailand Co. Ltd., reveals that the overview of Thai market, from the beginning of the year to the present, is in the recovery period and is expected to grow by 4.1% which is regard as the highest growth since 2012. GDP or gross domestic products has gone up to 4.8%, these figures reflect the business trend in electrical home appliances that are likely to improve.
For the first quarter of 2018, electrical home appliance is stabilize at 0.2% growth rate due to weather condition that impacted air conditioners product with 9% decreased. Nevertheless, small home appliances grew up by 7%, this gave confident to the positive future.
In terms of Toshiba's performance in the first quarter of 2018, overall Toshiba has grown by more than 20% in comparison to the same period in 2017. As new product line up, Toshiba introduced 32 new models in 8 categories, all of these came from joint development between Toshiba and Midea, and were the sources of Toshiba's high growth.
As for the market strategy for the second half of the year, Toshiba still uses the advantage from the synergy of 3 countries: Japanese quality product, Chinese speed in manufacturing and developing, and Thai experience. With these advantages, Toshiba will launch the concept of "A New Chapter Beyond All Limits" to reinforce the new age of Toshiba to move forward with no limits, by expecting to become top 3 electrical appliances within 3 years, and to grow by at least more than 2 digits. We plan to expand our business by introducing new product line up, and in the second half of the year, we will launch 34 more models in 8 product categories.
Mr. Hiroyuki Takase, General Manager for Electrical Home Appliances and AV adds that value of electrical home appliance market in Thailand increased by 0.2% from the data of January – April 2018. The largest proportion came from SDA (Small Domestic Appliances) which has 31%, while the proportion of air conditioner is 32%, refrigerator 19%, and washing machine 18%. As for growth refrigerator products and washing machine products grew by 4% while air conditioners decreased by 9%. On the other hand, small home appliances grew up to 7.1%, water heater 31%, and microwave 15%.
Toshiba's performance in the first half of 2018, Toshiba revenue increased more than 20% as a result of the growth in refrigerator, washing machine, microwave, and water heaters which reached 38%, 35%, 189%, and 146% respectively; air conditioners only increased by 1%.
As for the market strategy for the second half of the year, Toshiba plans to launch 34 new product line, including refrigerator, washing machine, rice cooker, blender, AV, and water heater, to fill in the market gap and to respond to customer's need by providing variety of models.
Mr. Boonyarat Trisirisombat, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Home Appliances Group, announces that in the second half of 2018, Toshiba will introduces many new product line up, especially refrigerator and washing machine which will expand Toshiba's market share for premium market and mass market. For refrigerator product, Toshiba has always been number 1 in 1 door refrigerator for many years, we also have products in 2 doors refrigerator and mini bars. In this year, we will be launching in full line up, Multi-Doors Refrigerator and Side By Side Refrigerator, both models has the market value of 1 billion baht. We plan to launch these models in the fourth quarter of the year, and on the third quarter we will also introduce our "FIT", a 1 door refrigerator with new design to continue being no.1 in 1 door refrigerator market with almost 30% market share.
In terms of new product development process, Toshiba pays great attention to consumer's demand and take consumer's trend into consideration. Toshiba's Side-by-Side and Multi Door refrigerators, for example, that take into account the fact that more women starts working outside with less time at home. With this factor we design our refrigerator to be bigger in order to store more purchased goods, as well as able to preserve freshness for long time and to keep each type of food in the right temperature.
The Multi-Door refrigerator, with its unique features of 3 Cycle Real Inverter, comes with 3 Cooling systems that circulate cool air all around, and an amazing deodorization system. In addition to this, there are also many storage areas up to 26 areas for you to store.
As for Washing Machine market, we aim to grow by 50% by adding more product line-up. With the launching of Twin Tub washing machine for entry level to middle markets, and Front Load washing machine and Wash and Dry front load for condominium and middle to high markets. Both markets has the market value up to 6,000 million baht, and will help to fill in market share for Toshiba's washing machine.
In the third quarter, Toshiba plans to launch Twin Tub washing machine that comes with beautiful and modern design, rust-free body, long with double water inlets that makes and spinning more convenient and cleaner. There are 4 capacities to choose from: 7.5 kg, 8.5 kg, 11 kg, and 13 kg.
As for Front Load washing machine, the product comes with Great Wave technology that allows clothes to be cleaned without a need for hot water, thus saving electricity and time, as well as preserving colour of clothes to stay for a longer time. There are 3 capacities to choose from: 7.5 kg, 8.5 kg, and 9.5 kg.
And our highlight, Wash and Dry Front Load, has the same capacity for washing and drying, for a convenient lifestyle. There are 2 capacities to choose from: 10/10 kg, and 8/8 kg, which plans to sell in the fourth quarter.
Mr.Chatree Ponsonda, Product Marketing Manager for Small Home Appliance Group, says that small home appliance is a growing market due to relatively low product price, continuous demand, and various types for different consumer needs. For the Toshiba brand, we aim to reach the top 3 in this sector within 3 years. In the first half of 2018, our microwave product outstandingly grew by 189%, resulting from the launch of 7 new models early this year. Our water heater product also grew by 146%, compared to last year. Therefore, we are set to introduce 8 new models in the third quarter for the arrival of winter. As for the rice cooker market, we are looking to expand in the middle and lower markets by launching 5 models of Jar Type rice cooker with brighter colour and more modern design. These are available in 2 capacities and 3 designs to choose. Moreover, Toshiba is expanding blenders product line up, which is also a growing market as Thailand is a hot country, and more people begin to take good care of themselves. Toshiba blender comes with Off Centre technology which gives fine blending.
Ms. Thunpapat Ariyavoravadh, Senior Marketing Manager, states that apart from economy factor that impacts the Thai market, there are also another factor from the consumer group which is changes in consumer trend. These changes impact product's research and development to suit the consumer's demand such as convenient, quality, technology, and design. These products can be consider a piece of furniture that is also suitable for speedy lifestyle that is time saving, or other lifestyle such as environmental-friendly, energy saving, and maintaining good health. Therefore, Toshiba products are design with great consideration to our consumers who are the main factor, to ensure that we will continuously "Bring Good Things to Life" to our consumers.
In terms of the marketing activities in the first half of 2018, Toshiba focuses on Branding, building image that the public can remember and point of sales. Promote Sales, we invest a lot to stimulate spending, as well as placing great emphasis on PC (Product Consultant), who give correct and useful product knowledge to customers, leading up to customer's confident and repeated purchase. Finally, Products, our products must have good quality, various, and competitive.
As for the second half of the year, we focuses on 4Ps which are: Product, apart from new product line up, we also place great emphasis on upgrading products to have good quality and modernize, and aim to be the leading brand; Sales Channel, not only we expand our sales channel for easier customer access, we also plan to renovate the shop to look modernize and appealing; Marketing Communication, we setup budget for advertisement and promote sales in above the line and below the line for more than 12%, in order to build recognition and confident, which lead to purchasing Toshiba product. We will focus on advertisement, especially online and social media, digital marketing, localised marketing, and arranging suitable promotion events for season and sales area; there will be constant campaign such as rainy season campaign, birthday celebration campaign, new year campaign, and even road show and work shop for targeted customer group to create product experience, as well as continuing our sponsorship to Muang Thong United Football Club. Finally, we place great emphasis on our PC (Product Consultant), we do not want our PCs to be only Toshiba representative but also personal consultant. We plan to train our PCs in terms of product knowledge and using experience to become customer's personal assistant, as well as able to give advice after sale.
Mrs. Kanit Muangkrachang, Chairperson, states that apart from the company's plan to support the new product and the marketing strategy mentioned above, the company also plans to develop the information system, after sale service system, human resources management system, and other systems to support the company's growth in the future. In addition to this, please have confident in Toshiba, we are still a brand that continues to develop for good.
Mrs. Kanit also adds that as Thai shareholder, we still have confident in Toshiba, with the synergy of 3 countries which lead to speedy and good quality innovation with a sustainable growth. More importantly, we continue to focus on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Toshiba must be a good example of company with good governance in Thai society. A company that does not focus solely on sales and services, but also responsible for our dealers, the society, next generation, and our beloved country, and will strive to "bring good things to life."