Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Samsung to invest US$140m in Africa push

Consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung Electronics will invest US$140 million in an African push that is aimed at growing sales revenue, build assembling plants and engineering academies sponsor research projects and fight counterfeits.
George Ferreira, Samsung Africa’s chief operating officer said this investment will further be injected in growing its market share, increase distribution of its products on the continent and engage governments to lower import duty on electronic products.
“Our investments in Africa in the next five years will be approximately $140 million,” Ferreira said in a phone interview following the conclusion of the five-day Samsung Africa Forum 2011 that concluded in Nairobi on Friday.
This year alone, the firm plans to invest another $40 million in Africa, with a target to more than double sales revenue.
“Our plan is to grow approximately 60 percent this year and for the next four years, we should be growing approximately 45 to 55 percent every year,” Ferreira said.
He said that in 2010, the firm’s sales revenue from Africa grew by 31 percent to reach $1.2 billion. The company has set itself a sales target of $10 billion by 2015.
Globally, Samsung Electronics revenue hit $135.8 billion in 2010 with an ambitious vision to reach $400 billion by 2020.
Samsung used the Nairobi forum to display some of its products ranging from mobile devices, laptop computers, digital cameras, internet-connected televisions, refrigerators and washing machines.
Ferreira said Samsung wants to lead the African market by 2015, something that will see the company overtake long standing market leaders like Sony, Nokia and South Korean rival, LG Electronics.
Today, Samsung operates in 42 African countries from a mere 15 in 2009.
With its Africa headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, Samsung has opened regional offices in Nigeria for Western Africa and Kenya for Eastern Africa.
In the mobile handset segment of the market where the company largely rivals Nokia, it claims a market share of about 20 percent with Nokia leading with a share of between 35-37 percent according to Ferreira.
“On mobile handsets, we want to get over 30 percent of market share. This will then put us on a par with Nokia,” he said.
He said Samsung has overtaken Nokia in western Europe in the mobile market and seeks to do the same in Africa.
“To me it’s not whether we will beat Nokia or not. It’s only a matter of time because globally, we are overtaking Nokia,” he said.
In terms of research, Samsung already runs an engineering academy in South Africa and is looking to replicate it elsewhere on the continent with the goal of graduating 10,000 electronics engineers in Africa by 2015.
The Nairobi forum, coming after the very first one last year in Johannesburg served as a platform to demonstrate Samsung’s strategy as well as innovations that the company has to offer.
The forum focused on introducing localized products that cater for the African lifestyle.
Earlier in the week, Samsung Africa president, Kwang Kee Park, said, the company will largely focus on Africa’s top 10 economies, which together generate 79 percent of the continent’s wealth and house almost 47 percent of the population.

No comments:

Post a Comment