Mr Arjun Bajaj- CEO & Founder, Daiwa shares future plans of the company
1. Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey as the founder of Daiwa. What motivated you to take this plunge when your father was already running a well-established business with Videotex India?
Daiwa begun its journey in the year 2016. The journey begun on the pathway to sync the ongoing problem in the TV Industry. We realized that the TV Market was going through a very troubled time period in terms of most of the brands were sourcing final products from China and assembling in India and calling it ‘Make in India’ and lacked implementation, which is where we felt the need to build a brand which truly resonates the ‘Make in India’ philosophy not only in terms of its design and performance but also functionalities designed as per the needs of the audience. Daiwa comes from the parent company Videotex a popular ODM brand which has been in the Industry for over 33 years. Today Daiwa, brings the complete back end integration for manufacturing LED TV’s in India and are currently having a capacity of producing 2,000 TV’s in day and are further planning to invest more in factories. With new and innovative yet smart technology in hand, the brand offers an excellent quality and affordability in one.
2. What is the idea behind Daiwa?
The Birth of Daiwa was actually in sync with the ongoing problem in the TV Industry. Most of the brands, if you see, are sourcing their final products from China and assembling it in India but very few brands were truly ‘Make in India’ nor are their features and functionalities designed as per the needs of the Indian audience. At the same time, Videotex (The Group Company of Daiwa) is one of the popular OEM Brand making TV’s for several others, with complete backend integration. Blending both the situations, we started Daiwa which is a complete Made in India TV, Made for India.
Daiwa is born to bring the latest in technology at most prudent prices in the Indian market. Daiwa though is a very young brand; it has challenged the industry norms in the Indian market and has tried to carve a niche for itself but with bearing in mind of the customers’ requirement as the paramount.
3. What are Daiwa’s overall manufacturing capabilities and capacities.
Currently we have three manufacturing units in Greater Noida, Ludhiana and Himachal Pradesh. Own R&D centre and design house is in Shenzhen, China.We Manufacture our motherboards in India & also have full backward integration setup for SMT, MI, FA, Clean Room and Moulding for our tv cabinets. Capacity to produce 2,000 motherboards and 2,000 TV’s in a day.Also we are known in the market for our Reverse Logistics – that takes effective steps for waste management, Green Marketing – for eco-design of its products and energy efficiency products, lastly Green Manufacturing – to reduce environmental pollution.
4. How many TVs are you currently manufacturing every month and how many are getting sold?
To be precise, Daiwa sold 10,000 LED TVs in the first year of operation; that one milestone has been significant yet unpredictable achievement for us. The LED TVs were sold through the online portals. Daiwa has progressed 4 times more in the second year if compared with the starting year of operation. An average sale of DAIWA Tv’s is 3,800 TV’s a month this year , Manufacturing around 50,000 TV’s as OEM.
5. Explain in brief the challenges faced by local LED TV manufacturers in India?
The recent rise in the import duty of open cell from zero percent to 10 percent is a big hit to the TV manufacturing industry in India. This has led to a thin gap between importing and manufacturing of panels. The Government must consider rolling this duty out in order to encourage local manufacturing and employment or else this could have a large effect on the dream of Make in India.
The duty would have been accepted by the Indian TV industry if the open cell was manufactured in India. However, no company is close to setting up a plant due to the heavy investment it requires”. ?
6. At present, what is your turnover and what kind of growth targets have you set for the next two years?
Our consistent efforts to escalate the brand to create a distinct name that stands out of the crowd are progressing. As far as our targets in terms of revenues are taken into account, the brand will be accosting a turnover of more than Rs 45 crore this year. We expect the upcoming years to be more opportunistic and positive for the market. Moreover, with the amassing advancements, we envision the sector to be omnipresent at the global platform by 2020.
As a wider set of the nation-building initiative, there are various newest improvements such as manufacturing of many electronic components, especially hardware. Since India’s electronic business is one of the largest across the globe, and to subsequent this growth, we are going to increase our sales base in different states, since business today is all about an above reproach mix of technology, innovation, quality and cost. Also, viewing the dedication and commitment to provide our customers state-of-the-art products, we have envisioned being available in India within a span of few months.
7. Will Daiwa consider diversification into other product segments beyond television?
Being in this Industry for more than three decades, we are aware of the numerous domains. Likewise, our strategies and implementations are clear throughout for expansion as well. For the moment, ‘Make in India’ is oriented to manufacture user-friendly 4K TVs and washing machines. Taking into account that India’s Electronic business has hiked to one of the leading industries around the globe, we are going to increase our sales base in different states, since business in the current date is an above reproach assortment of technology, innovation, quality, and cost. We are majorly a ‘Make in India’ product loaded and featured with an enduring and perpetual strong service support.
Attributed by Mr. Mr. Arjun Bajaj - CEO and Founder - Daiwa