Panasonic A.P. Sales Thailand Co, the distributor of Panasonic electrical appliances, plans to increase sales by 15% in its fiscal 2018 ending March 31, 2019 to 14.5 billion baht.
The company's bullish prospects are primarily driven by the improving economy, growing tourism and the government's massive spending on big-ticket infrastructure projects, said Hiroyuki Kitano, the company's managing director.
The company expects to focus on boosting sales of premium products more than in past years, he said.
"Although Thailand's electrical home appliance market experienced no growth in 2017, sales of Panasonic electrical home appliances tallied 12.6 billion baht in the last fiscal year, up 5% year-on-year, because of rising sales in our premium categories," Mr Kitano said.
Of the total, air conditioners contributed 42% of the company's sales the last fiscal year, with refrigerators making up 19%, washing machines 15% and other items the rest.
Flagship products driving sales growth in fiscal 2018 include air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines.
Air conditioners are expected to account for 44% of total sales, refrigerators 19%, washing machines 16% and other products 21%.
Akihiro Yamaguchi, the company's director of air-conditioner marketing, said the company expects demand for air conditioners in Thailand to grow 10% this year from 1,430,000 units in 2017, which was a 10% dip from 2016.
Sales of Panasonic air conditioners grew 2% last year to 297,500 units.
Mr Yamaguchi said the company expects the overall air conditioner market to resume growth this year to 1,570,000 units, while Panasonic expects to sell 357,000 units this year.
"With our new inverter technology, we are confident that our market share will rise to 23% this year, up from 21% last year," he said.
Hiroyuki Tagishi, managing director of Panasonic Appliances Asia-Pacific, said Panasonic is celebrating its centennial of global business operations. The company plans to enhance the performance of its premium product segment in Asia.
"Last year we achieved satisfactory growth by introducing a series of technology-driven and innovative products with a unique design," he said. "We want to become a top air-conditioner brand in Asia by 2020."