“There is much scope to improve technical awareness on switchgear products”

Despite the fact that switches and switchgear is very commonplace in industrial, commercial and residential establishments, there is much scope to improve awareness on technical aspects amongst both electricians and owners, strongly felt Dinesh Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, Panasonic Life Solutions India Ltd.

Agarwal along with other senior company officials were addressing the media during the launch of the new “UNO Plus” range of switchgear, on October 28, 2021, in Mumbai.

Terming the process as “demystification,” Aggarwal said that Panasonic Life Solutions has planned to start social media initiatives so as to educate home owners, in particular, about switchgear products and applications. “By this, they (home owners) will not rely completely on electricians,” Agarwal observed.

Are electricians always certified? This was the question posed to Aggarwal to which he said that when it comes to home and commercial installations, even electricians need to be trained. Most electricians have not been formally trained and have informally picked up the trade over a period of time, he said. All the same, in industrial establishments, uncertified electricians are not allowed to even touch the electrician installation. This is makes industrial electrical installations safer and technically sound.

As an initiative coming from the leader in the wiring devices industry, Panasonic Life Solutions has taken up the formidable but critical task of training electricians through its “ACE” (Anchor Certified Electrician) programme. Elaborating on this venture, Sunil Narula, Vice President – Marketing, Panasonic Life Solutions India Ltd, explained that it was a programme where electricians are given a full-day training session. The programme was started in March this year and so far five training sessions have been held in Bangalore, Nagpur, Pune, among other cities. “These electricians are trained through a third-party agency and they become evangelists of our products as well as understand how important switchgear products are,” Narula noted.

Besides the ACE programme, Panasonic LSI has traditionally always held electricians meets and other interactive programmes for product orientation and training, Narula said.

Adding to the product training aspect, Dinesh Aggarwal noted that even selection of the right switchgear (MCB or RCCB) involves technical understanding of the product. The electrician as well as the user needs to be aware of which type of MCB will suit which application. Such training programmes become an educational endeavour besides being a marketing initiative, Aggarwal added.

 

Premium, yet affordable

Discussing the genesis of “UNO Plus,” Yogesh Verma, Head — Switchgear Business Unit, Panasonic Life Solutions India Ltd, noted that the new range was a premium product. Under the “Panasonic” brand, the company already has a range of premium switchgear. However, as Verma explained, “We wanted a switchgear product that was premium but yet affordable.”

Discussing the technical features of the MCBs and RCCBs in the UNO Plus range, Yogesh Varma noted that the new offering carries several unique features like line-load reversibility, IP20 protection, wide range of ratings (0.5A to 63A), CE and ROHS compliance, longest warranty period of seven years, etc. While some of these features have been incorporated in other brands, UNO Plus is currently the only brand that offers all these features in a single product.

On a finer point, Verma elaborated that as UNO Plus MCBs would come even in small ampere ratings, special enclosures would be available to install smaller number of MCBs, closer to the loads.

 

Sri City facility

Dinesh Aggarwal observed that a sizeable amount of Rs.3 crore was spent just on the design and development of UNO Plus. Currently, the new range will be produced at the Haridwar manufacturing facility at Uttarakhand. It may be mentioned that Panasonic Life Solutions India is in the process of developing a new manufacturing facility at Sri City at Hyderabad, with a total outlay of Rs.600 crore. The upcoming facility will go on stream, in phases, starting July 2022. In the first phase, switches will be manufactured, followed by switchgear in the second. Eventually, production of UNO Plus will be shifted to the Sri City facility.

 

Market share

The size of the organized switchgear market is around Rs.900 crore, noted Yogesh Varma. Adding to this point, Dinesh Aggarwal observed that the total organized-market size of final distribution products is around Rs.3,500 crore out of which Panasonic’s current market share was 7 per cent. With the launch of UNO Plus, the company expects to increase its market share to around 10 per cent, remarked Aggarwal.

There was immense scope to increase market share nationwide, said Aggarwal, adding that augmentation of market share was currently taking place through products under the UNO and Panasonic brand. “UNO Plus will add to our effort,” Agarwal noted.  When asked about specific geographical pockets where high demand was foreseen, the Joint MD highlighted that post-COVID, residential construction activity has picked up in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and to some extent in Noida. In terms of commercial realty, Hyderabad, Bangalore and are emerging centres. [UNO is a seven-year-old brand for switchgear products from Panasonic Life Solutions India.]

 

Reaching the market

Dwelling on the strategy of launching UNO Plus in the market, Sunil Narula summarized that by December 2021, around 80 per cent of the market will be covered while the remaining 20 per cent will be attained in the last quarter (January to March) of FY22.

Panasonic Life Solutions India currently has around 3,000 active dealers/distributors that cater to over 1 lakh retailers nationwide. Specifically for switchgear, there are 2,000 active dealers/distributors that supply to over 25,000 retail outlets.

“For UNO Plus, we are looking at reaching out to 500-1,000 dealers/distributors and 5,000-8,000 retail outlets in the first phase,” explained Narula.

 

ZIVA: A big success

Panasonic Life Solutions India is generally very pleased with the way their “ZIVA” range of wiring devices has been accepted by the market. Since its launch in August 2020, sales of over Rs.150 crore have been realized from the ZIVA brand, Sunil Narula stated. He remarked that the market has found the product quality to be impeccable and there have been no product recalls or returns as such.

Before the launch of ZIVA, “Penta Modular” was the entry-level brand in the modular wiring devices category. When asked if Penta Modular could be eventually phased out, following ZIVA’s success, Narula ruled out the possibility. ZIVA has been positioned between the non-modular range and Penta Modular, in terms of pricing. “The idea with ZIVA is to convert customers of non-modular wiring devices to the modular variety,” explained Narula.

 

(Featured photograph is for illustration only)