Renowned brands open showrooms in the port city
Business of electronic goods is booming in the port city, as retailers have set up hundreds of showrooms here. Almost all brands have opened showrooms in the city of around 50 lakh inhabitants to grab a pie of the lucrative market.
Different business houses started strong marketing campaigns for different electronic goods — television sets, refrigerators, deep freezes and microwave ovens — for the ongoing T-20 World Cup Cricket and the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha.
To be in the race, new companies are coming up with new products, triggering a healthy competition and helping the consumers buy products of their choice at competitive prices.
Chittagong city is a favourable place for business of electronic goods, said Faruk Hossain Khan, manager for the Chawk Bazar branch of Butterfly Marketing Ltd. Khan said Butterfly Marketing has 10 showrooms in the port city, while five years back there were only four.
“Sales figures at our showrooms are increasing,” he said, adding that the company’s turnover stands at nearly Tk 4 crore a month in the city, up from around Tk 30 lakh five years back.
“We have a service centre in the city’s Agrabad area and we plan to open another at the Alanker intersection.”
Singer, another renowned brand, has 14 showrooms in the port city and a service centre in Agrabad, said Iftekher Hossain, assistant manager of the brand’s Chawk Bazar showroom.
Freezers and refrigerators are on the list of best selling products for which Singer provides home service, he said.
Jahangir Hossain, a sales executive at a Sony-Rangs showroom at Chawk Bazar, said sales volume had increased at his showroom during Ramadan, and they are getting ready for the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha with a new sales target.
Around forty-five television sets are being sold a month at the showroom of Sony-Rangs, he said, adding that they also provide a five-year warranty for TV picture tubes.
Rangs refrigerators are available in five new models in the company’s four showrooms in Chittagong, he said.
All the four showrooms of Transcom Electronics Ltd in the city logged brisk sales, said Mohsin Uddin Chowdhury, the zonal sales manager of the company in Chittagong.
“We have a current sales target of Tk 1.5 crore a month.”
He said most of the time the company’s sales cross 85-90 percent of the target.
Chowdhury is hopeful about meeting the sales target ahead of the Eid festival, when people prefer buying refrigerators to store meat of sacrificial animals in huge quantities.
He said Transcom showrooms sell products of different brands, including Samsung, Philips, Whirlpool and Transtec.
People now love to buy medium-size refrigerators due to space constraints, said Fazlul Kader Chowdhury, manager for the Dampara branch of Transcom.
Transtec refrigerators are priced between Tk 35,500 and Tk 42,900 depending on their size, while a fridge of Samsung brand can cost up to Tk 1.92 lakh, he said.
“We provide home service for air coolers and refrigerators, while there is a five-year warranty for picture tubes of television sets and compressors of refrigerators,” he said.
Jakir Hossain, manager for the Chawk Bazar branch of Walton, said their company has eight showrooms in the port city.
Walton has its factory in Gazipur and it imports TV picture tubes from Malaysia, he said.
-With The Daily Star input
