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BPL board okays revamp plan

Our Bureau

BANGALORE, July 23

THE board of the BPL Ltd has cleared the organisation wide restructuring, which includes divestment from group companies' equity, financial reengineering and rightsizing the organisation.

The board has defined four core areas of business as part of the restructuring. These business areas include entertainment electronics, home appliances, soft energy and health care.

The other strategic objectives the board of the company has identified include focussing on higher profitability. A company release said that, as part of the strategy, the company was planning to double its export turnover in the current financial year t o Rs 250 crore and to Rs 1000 crore over a period of five years.

To boost exports, the company has created a central marketing organisation in London to handle international marketing and procurement specifically to Europe . It has also acquired a colour television manufacturing unit in Slovenia to facilitate its expa nsion into Europe. The company was also enhancing the sale of home appliances, in particular refrigerators to international markets and alkaline batteries to the region. Battery exports had registered a 91 per cent growth in the last financial year, the release said.

Despite a sluggish market condition for the electronics goods, BPL maintained its leadership position in the colour television segment and touched 18.25 per cent in June after succumbing to competition and slowdown impact in May when it had only 17.6 per cent rise. It had a 18.9 per cent share in the market in April.

During the period, BPL launched Studio Line 21, the world's first and only television with 1000 watts sound. This model is expected to help BPL grow and consolidate its market share in the core 21-inches segment. The complete range of flatscreen televisi ons, BPL Matrix ( in the 14, 24 and 29 inches segments) was launched recently.