Embattled global electronics giant Sony has high hopes from the Indian market. But one of the problems here is that the country does not have component manufacturers, because of which the company has to import finished products, Sony India managing director Masaru Tamagawa tells Gayatri Verma. This year the company plans to grow its equity base in India and further penetrate the market, he says. Excerpts from the interview:

•This year we’ve seen Sony cut a lot of jobs and close down factories in many countries. Is Sony’s electronics division in retreat? What are the implications for India?

While we have had to cut back in some factories, the company is still growing and there are no plans for cutting jobs in India.

•In the mid 90s, Japanese brands like Sony really drove the consumer electronics market. But when the markets boomed in the last 3-4 years, Korean companies ruled the roost. Did your India strategy fail?

No we do not see it like that. We have completely different product lines. There are very few products in which we compete in the same market as these companies. They manufacture consumer durables like washing machines and fridges, where we do not have a presence at all. We concentrate on consumer electronic items like digital cameras and large LCD televisions. Also, our target customer is very different. Our brand is more aspirational and we target a higher income family. Sony products are of the kind that you can one day hope to own when your income grows and that is the image that we would like to promote.

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