Taipei-headquartered Victor Rackets Industrial Corp (勝利體育), the world’s second-largest badminton racket supplier, yesterday said it aims to explore opportunities in India’s rapidly growing badminton market.
“We aim to raise Victor’s Indian market share to about 10 percent in the next five years, compared with the current share of between 3 and 5 percent,” said Joe Ko (柯喬然), managing director of the company’s Indian subsidiary, Victor Rackets Pvt Ltd.
Badminton is the second most played sport in India after cricket, and the number of Indian participants in the sport is increasing because of the country’s growing middle class, Ko said on the sidelines of the Taiwan Expo in New Delhi.
Victor Rackets began developing sales channels in India in 2014 in a bid to catch up with a major competitor, he said, referring to Japan’s Yonex Co Ltd, which controls about 90 percent of the market there.
The 50-year-old company declined to elaborate on its shipments to India, but said it has seen rapid sales growth in the market.
In the near term, it would focus on increasing brand recognition in the country, rather than simply pursuing high profitability, the company said, adding that its Indian subsidiary would continue pouring resources into marketing campaigns, despite not having broken even since entering the market four years ago.
As part of its effort to impress local customers, the company plans to sponsor India’s top-ranked badminton players and improve its services on e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon.com.
“After all, we are not here to build factories... We are here to develop our own brand and grab a larger market share in India,” Ko said, adding that the company would not try to take shortcuts.
Ko, who also serves as the president of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in Delhi, said Taiwanese suppliers should play to their strengths if they want to expand their presence in India.
“Some Taiwanese businesspeople hope to quickly set up branches or plants in India, but you have to first think about your target market and what niche products will work,” Ko said.
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