The TV market in Australia which was booming during COVID has slowed recently with challenger brands TCL and Hisense losing tens of millions during 2021,despite growing market share during the past two years.
According to financial data obtained by ChannelNews, TCL and Hisense lost a collective $24.06M last year, despite TCL lifting sales to $199,051,736 as at, December 30th, 2021, this was up from $185,982,561 in 2020.
During the same period, Hisense lifting sales from $397,505,475 in 2020 to $412,962,400 in 2021.
According to observers Hisense has been “buying market share during the past year” in an effort to be competitive following the exit of senior long-time management in 2020.
Hisense’s spiral to an $12M loss in December 2021 comes after, Hisense Australia were forced to recruit a new management team after General Manager Tania Garonzi and her husband marketing director Andre Iannuzzi quit the Chinese TV and appliance brand after 15 years, with Tania joining The Good Guys as Marketing Director.
Back in 2019 under Garonzi leadership, Hisense delivered $5.23M in profits, this doubled to $10.46M in 2020.
The market was also difficult for TCL who in 2021, reported a loss of $11.9M after making a $7.038M profit in 2020.
In an effort to attract consumers to the Chinese TV and appliance brand Hisense who also sell the Toshiba TV brand exclusively via the Good Guys, increased their advertising spend from $9.7M to $13.08M after becoming a major NRL sponsor, but despite this this investment they were still forced to slash prices in an effort to clear stock levels as consumers returned to instore shopping.
The Melbourne based business also increased their provision for warranty claims to $5.7M which was up by $1M over the 2020 allowance, with the business allowing for 5% of consumers to make a warranty claim.
TCL who are the worlds #2 Tv manufacturer also supply the Ffalcon range of TVs to JB Hi Fi.
Both Companies are currently expanding their appliance business in Australia with neither Company providing a breakdown of TV’s Vs appliances sold in Australia.
According to new research from Statista Samsung is still #1 in the market followed by LG Electronics with $16% followed by Hisense.
See full market details here.
According to analysts the competitive nature of premium and affordable TV market has resulted in challenger brands to Samsung, LG and Sony struggling to compete.
During the past months both LG and Samsung have slashed prices weeks after launching new TV models.
According to Foad Fadaghi, Managing Director of research Company Telsyte “there are still a lot of people out there who have not upgraded to an Ultra High-Definition TV,” and this presents brands with a lot of opportunity next year.
Analysts at Citi claim that discounting is set to be a common factor as inflation issues place pressure on the market.
