Toshiba Corp plans to invest about one billion baht next year to double its production capacity of refrigerators and washing machines in Thailand.
“Thailand is an important market for Toshiba’s home appliance business,” said Makoto Nakagawa, corporate senior executive vice-president of Toshiba Corporation. “The company plans to continue to invest in Thailand in the near future.”
Mr Nakagawa said Toshiba would expand the refrigerator plant of Thai Toshiba Electric Industries and the washing machine plant of Toshiba Consumer Products.
Under the investment plan, refrigerator production is expected to double to 900,000 units annually in 2005, and washing machine production will also double to one million units.
Toshiba entered the Thai market in 1969 and now has a total of 18 subsidiaries and offices with annual sales of about 40 billion baht.
Mr Nakagawa said the investment would help strengthen the company’s operations as well as its competitiveness in the refrigerator and washing machine markets through greater economies of scale and product innovation.
About 70% of the production at Thai Toshiba Electric Industries in Nonthaburi will be exported. For Toshiba Consumer Products, located in Pathum Thani, around 90% of production is exported.
Mr Nakagawa said that after capacity in Thailand is expanded, sales of Toshiba home appliances in Asia could be expected to double to 40 billion yen (14.4 billion baht) in 2005.
Apart from making additional investments in Thailand, Toshiba set up Toshiba Consumer Marketing Corporation in Japan in October. The new unit will work closely with Thai subsidiaries by supporting product planning, production and cost competitiveness through the promotion of global products and increased use of common parts.
“We will also seek to accelerate the development and introduction of products that meet Asian needs and seek to reinforce Asian marketing. The move will help keep us competitive in this market,” Mr Nakagawa said.
Sales of Toshiba Thailand for the fiscal year ending in March 2004 are expected to reach 3.2 billion baht, an increase of 23% from the same period last year. About 60% of sales will come from home appliances, 25% from audio-visual products and 15% from IT products.
Sales of Toshiba refrigerators are expected to rise by 11%, higher that the forecast of 6% growth for the industry, while its washing machine business is projected to grow by 20%, compared with the industry forecast of 11%.
From The Bangkok Post