Avneet Singh Marwah is the director and CEO, SSPL: We will continue offer best-priced TVs in the market under Kodak brand
Avneet Singh Marwah is the director and CEO of Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SSPL) based out of Noida. SPPL is a 30-year-old manufacturing company, incorporated in 1997 before which it was known as Super Plast. Today, SPPL is the one of the foremost OEM’s in the LED industry and runs successful brands of its own. The company has manufacturing units in Noida, Una and Jammu and over 28 company-owned branch offices across India. Singh joined SPPL in 2009, and over the years he has held various portfolios across the company working in areas including manufacturing, supply chain, product development and marketing & sales. SPPL is a brand licensee of Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester USA for Kodak HD LED TVs in India. Kodak, as an SSPL brand, claims to have one of the best recall value globally. In an interaction with Times of India, Avneet Singh talks about Kodak TV’s growth in the Indian market, their strategy to go for Google TV OS and the recent new facility that the company has set up at Hapur, UP. Excerpts
Q. What are the main reasons behind the shift from Android TV to Google TV?
There is no other brand in the world that enjoys brand equity like Google. It surpasses that of Android too. The transition has been a company decision made in the Mountain View office of Google. The UI, as soon as it is introduced in the market, will also earn equity for itself given the new user interface that customers will soon get to experience.
With this launch what Google has additionally done is replicate its search engine system into their TV software wherein all the applications have been integrated on their UI to make searches and recommendations easier. An already watched show will not be recommended on the same account again and the new recommendations will be as per the viewers’ choice.
Q. What are your expectations from the newly launched QLED range for the upcoming festive season?
We have very high expectations from this launch. We are hoping for positive and honest feedback from our customer base who will truly see the work that has gone in to develop this model especially with regard to the new software- Google TV.
After 2018, this is the first launch with Google by Kodak and we thank our partners for their unrelenting trust and support. This will give us a good edge over our competitors in the market too.
Q. What trends are you expecting with regards to Make in India QLED technology?
Kodak aims to be the trendsetter when it comes to new technology in TV. With our curation of software lined up for release, other brands will follow suit. We are the first to introduce Google TV in the market and will work on making the software as popular as possible as its UI/UX is really great to work with. This TV comes with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, DTS, Dolby MS 12, MS 11 too. Given the rising popularity of OTT platforms, we want consumers to have the best gadget to stream on. With our fully loaded specs TV, customers are sure to have an above par experience. We genuinely believe that our TVs must come at a great price and that is exactly what we are trying to do. We will continue to offer the best-priced TVs in the market and be the most-sought after consumer durable brand.
Q. What according to you is the most-popular TV segment in the country right now?
The most popular TV segment currently in the country is the 43 inch. Till some time back, it used to be the 32 inch, but consumers are now looking to upgrade their screen size along with software. The urban and semi-urban consumers are shifting towards bigger screens and the premium segment is gaining ground too.
Q. How has the entry of established smartphone brands like OnePlus and Realme changed the TV market in India?
Well, I think due to the entry of all these brands the market share of Kodak has increased, as consumers have started showing confidence in affordable brands. Also, due to the border tension with China, there has been a shift toward Indian brands. The brands that have been impacted by the entry of Xiaomi, Realme and other Chinese companies are the Korean and Japanese brands that have seen their market share drop.
With the QLED Google TV launch, we feel proud that this is the first time Kodak has a product advantage, as none of these brands have been able to launch Google TV in QLED range so far.
Q. What exactly is the meaning of a fully-automated TV manufacturing plant?
A fully automated line is one with the most minimum human intervention, close to zero. On such lines only the externals of the product are attached and tested. Fully automated lines reduce the margin of error significantly, bringing them to almost nil. There is immense accuracy involved in the entire process.
We have also used technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will enable us to better the quality of our products. With AI we will be regularly testing our TVs across parameters such as colour testing, patterns, audio and video too. This kind of regular testing will not only give us correct results but the AI will also gather data for future use and reference. Our plant will also have robotics for packaging and handling of fragile items such as LEDs. Sub-assembly categories too will be attached to the automated manufacturing line.
Q. Is the aim of this plant to offer better economies of scale?
As you know, we are trying to develop a manufacturing unit that is fully automated. We have had this in the pipeline for many years as the sole aim of our new high tech facility is to grow at least by 100% in 2023-2024.
Our new manufacturing line will involve most minimum human intervention. We have taken care of all of this while setting up the plant. This AI-enabled system will also take care of the quality of our output, which will be at par with global standards. Our economies of scale will improve as our rejection rate will be less, which will result in an increase in production.
Q. What are the main reasons behind the shift from Android TV to Google TV?
There is no other brand in the world that enjoys brand equity like Google. It surpasses that of Android too. The transition has been a company decision made in the Mountain View office of Google. The UI, as soon as it is introduced in the market, will also earn equity for itself given the new user interface that customers will soon get to experience.
With this launch what Google has additionally done is replicate its search engine system into their TV software wherein all the applications have been integrated on their UI to make searches and recommendations easier. An already watched show will not be recommended on the same account again and the new recommendations will be as per the viewers’ choice.
Q. What are your expectations from the newly launched QLED range for the upcoming festive season?
We have very high expectations from this launch. We are hoping for positive and honest feedback from our customer base who will truly see the work that has gone in to develop this model especially with regard to the new software- Google TV.
After 2018, this is the first launch with Google by Kodak and we thank our partners for their unrelenting trust and support. This will give us a good edge over our competitors in the market too.
Q. What trends are you expecting with regards to Make in India QLED technology?
Kodak aims to be the trendsetter when it comes to new technology in TV. With our curation of software lined up for release, other brands will follow suit. We are the first to introduce Google TV in the market and will work on making the software as popular as possible as its UI/UX is really great to work with. This TV comes with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, DTS, Dolby MS 12, MS 11 too. Given the rising popularity of OTT platforms, we want consumers to have the best gadget to stream on. With our fully loaded specs TV, customers are sure to have an above par experience. We genuinely believe that our TVs must come at a great price and that is exactly what we are trying to do. We will continue to offer the best-priced TVs in the market and be the most-sought after consumer durable brand.
Q. What according to you is the most-popular TV segment in the country right now?
The most popular TV segment currently in the country is the 43 inch. Till some time back, it used to be the 32 inch, but consumers are now looking to upgrade their screen size along with software. The urban and semi-urban consumers are shifting towards bigger screens and the premium segment is gaining ground too.
Q. How has the entry of established smartphone brands like OnePlus and Realme changed the TV market in India?
Well, I think due to the entry of all these brands the market share of Kodak has increased, as consumers have started showing confidence in affordable brands. Also, due to the border tension with China, there has been a shift toward Indian brands. The brands that have been impacted by the entry of Xiaomi, Realme and other Chinese companies are the Korean and Japanese brands that have seen their market share drop.
With the QLED Google TV launch, we feel proud that this is the first time Kodak has a product advantage, as none of these brands have been able to launch Google TV in QLED range so far.
Q. What exactly is the meaning of a fully-automated TV manufacturing plant?
A fully automated line is one with the most minimum human intervention, close to zero. On such lines only the externals of the product are attached and tested. Fully automated lines reduce the margin of error significantly, bringing them to almost nil. There is immense accuracy involved in the entire process.
We have also used technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will enable us to better the quality of our products. With AI we will be regularly testing our TVs across parameters such as colour testing, patterns, audio and video too. This kind of regular testing will not only give us correct results but the AI will also gather data for future use and reference. Our plant will also have robotics for packaging and handling of fragile items such as LEDs. Sub-assembly categories too will be attached to the automated manufacturing line.
Q. Is the aim of this plant to offer better economies of scale?
As you know, we are trying to develop a manufacturing unit that is fully automated. We have had this in the pipeline for many years as the sole aim of our new high tech facility is to grow at least by 100% in 2023-2024.
Our new manufacturing line will involve most minimum human intervention. We have taken care of all of this while setting up the plant. This AI-enabled system will also take care of the quality of our output, which will be at par with global standards. Our economies of scale will improve as our rejection rate will be less, which will result in an increase in production.
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