If you missed the launch, think you know who is buying those massive, cinema-sized TVs in the country? If you guessed apartment-dwellers in the big metros, you might want to guess again! In this engaging sit-down with Pankaj Rana, CEO, Hisense India, I got an inside look at how the tech giant is shaking up the Indian living room. Rana takes us behind the scenes of their playbook, highlighting the power of local manufacturing and the clever positioning of their Hisense and Toshiba dual-brand tag team. Along the way, he drops a surprising twist: the biggest appetite for premium, supersized screens is actually surging in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Dive into the conversation below to see how Hisense is rewriting the rules of the TV market!

Question: First of all, congratulations on being at Hisense. You have actually got a pretty strong reputation overall in the market. How does it feel to be such a big, leading brand in TVs globally right now?

Answer: Hisense has been leading the TV business globally for many years now, and it is primarily because of our technological progress and first-of-its-kind innovations, particularly in visual display technology. Over the past several years, the Hisense Group has achieved notable milestones, such as bringing the first Mini LED and then the first RGB Mini LED to the market. Last year, we launched the 100-inch and 116-inch UX series across the globe. Across the board, we have a complete portfolio of products starting from premium RGB Mini LEDs, followed by Mini LEDs, QLEDs, UHDs, and 2K models. We are a brand that offers a complete solution to the end customer through our two brands: Toshiba and our parent company, Hisense. This growth story of innovation and capturing market momentum will continue; in the last six months to a year, we have also been growing our presence in the country across both e-commerce and offline channels.

Question: You have a very strong history with LG and Panasonic in growing their e-commerce businesses. Can you talk about your strategy and the learnings you brought to Hisense to grow both the e-commerce and offline presence?

Answer: My major roles previously involved developing the offline channel for Panasonic’s TV and smartphone businesses, and later handling omnichannel and e-commerce for LG. When my team and I started here at Hisense, we first focused on building the organisation’s infrastructure—hiring the right manpower across all functions and establishing the right processes. Offline retail in the country is still majorly based on relationships and trust. For example, the experience partners like Reliance have had working with my team and me over the last 10 to 20 years acts as a door opener. Over the last six to eight months, we have successfully onboarded many major customers in the country’s offline channel. Our major focus for the TV business is the mid-to-premium segment, primarily dominating the screen size market above 75 inches. When I started with Hisense, e-commerce contributed to 90% of our business, while offline was just 10%. Now, we have reached the industry standard of around 70% offline and 30% online.

Question: It is great to know about the shift in the online and offline balance because Hisense globally has become established among TV enthusiasts and the masses, but in the country, you still feel the legacy of the big three. Can you talk about the evolution of The company perception of Hisense in the country and how that is changing?

Answer: When we started in the Indian market, we didn’t go into the mass segment first. We positioned ourselves as a big-screen, value-for-money brand that provides customers with the real experience of the product, including evolving connectivity and smart features. Most of our TVs in the country use our own OS, VIDAA (which we now call Home OS). Initially, this was a challenge because most companies were using Android or Google, and big competitors like LG and Samsung had relied on their proprietary OS in this country for 25 to 30 years. We had to give demonstrations to explain to the customer how VIDAA’s speed and experience are superior. A major advantage I found over the last year and a half is that most of our channel partners, like retail chains in the South or East, are well-travelled. Having attended international shows like IFA, the Canton Fair, and CES, they already know how strong Hisense is globally in TVs and home appliances. It was just a matter of managing the online and offline channels and getting our act right for the Indian market. We are not currently trying to compete to displace the top three; rather, we are trying to create our own space in the Indian market.

Question: Can you talk a little bit about local manufacturing? You recently started manufacturing in Andhra Pradesh. How has local manufacturing helped you penetrate the Indian market better, be it with pricing or sourcing?

Answer: In TVs and consumer home appliances, local manufacturing is mandatory; you cannot import these products from outside. Having local manufacturing helps us in two main ways. First, it allows us to manage our supply chain in a much better and more flexible manner. Since we are not import-dependent, we can have parts available in the factory and adjust our production cycle based on customer demand. Second, local manufacturing saves money through localisation, heavily driven by India’s Phase 1 PLI for assembly and ECMS. Procuring parts from local suppliers helps reduce costs. Furthermore, because India has multiple geographies with different preferences and languages, local manufacturing helps us innovate specifically for this market. For example, Indian customers prefer higher sound output and bass, and we created specific models for India with those features, as well as a dedicated “cricket mode”. Other parts of India prefer sharper or brighter images, so we adjusted our custom settings accordingly. Localisation helps us understand customers better and deliver exactly what they are looking for.

Question: When you are speaking of understanding the customer, you mentioned you have two brands: Hisense and Toshiba. How are you positioning them differently so as not to create internal cannibalisation?

Answer: We are positioning Hisense to compete with Korean brands in the Indian market. With Toshiba, we want to capture the Japanese brand space, which was previously occupied by Panasonic (who are no longer in the TV business) and competes with Sony. Brand awareness for Toshiba is high in the country, and because they have sold TVs here for many years, they have a legacy of brand affinity. Additionally, Indian consumers and channels naturally have an affinity for Japanese brands. Given that Toshiba is the number one TV brand in Japan with over 30% value and volume share, we position it as slightly more premium than Hisense, featuring the Regza engine and slightly better designs. On the other hand, channels and influencers recognise the global power of the Hisense brand, which is bolstered by being a global sponsor of major sporting events like the last two FIFA World Cups, the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the Euro Cup. Customers looking to buy large-screen TVs already know Hisense and have a strong affinity for buying our products.

Question: Like you spoke about, the South being a pretty important market, if you break it up into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 cities, how do you see the consumer differences? Considering India is a price-conscious market, do you see higher spending power for bigger sizes in Tier 3 and Tier 4?

Answer: While it might seem like Tier 1 customers would want larger screens and Tier 2 or 3 might prefer smaller ones, the fact of the matter is very different: we are seeing significant growth in large screens coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Let’s take Delhi or Gurgaon as an example. In a Tier 1 city, people live in apartments. If I want to sell a 100-inch TV, the first problem is whether the apartment lift can even fit the TV, and if the home has a wall big enough to display it. In my own home, I max out at a 75-inch TV. That said, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, people have independent houses with much bigger spaces. Surprisingly for us, the large screen sales contribution is higher in places like Vijayawada, Indore, Bhopal, Jalandhar, or Ludhiana than in a Tier 1 city. The consumption line between Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 is blurring, and demand is very good from smaller cities now.

Answer: Eight to ten years is difficult to predict in this highly competitive and disruptive world, but I can speak to the next three to five years. We aim to be a dominant brand in the TV business. By combining the market shares of both Hisense and Toshiba, we aim to be among the top three TV brands. We don’t want to rush for numbers or market share, which is why a five-year timeline might be more practical than three. Having been in this industry for over two decades under constant pressure, I know that running too fast without the right processes can cause brands to vanish. We want to build a customer base that genuinely likes and recommends our products, ensuring that our channel partners earn money and our employees have a long-term future with the organisation. We want long-term, sustainable growth in the country. Additionally, we want to make Hisense a multi-product company. While TV is our face and we are very proud of it, we are globally very strong in air conditioners, refrigerators, and laundry. Step by step, we will launch a complete bouquet of products. Our bigger aim in the next five years is to be among the top four or five consumer-driven brands in the country overall. Finally, I encourage everyone to experience our products; we are launching a very exciting range of Mini LED TVs in Toshiba, and a very strong lineup of RGB Mini LEDs for both Hisense and Toshiba soon.

Conclusion

Pankaj Rana outlines a clear, sustainable vision for the Hisense Group in the country. By leveraging local manufacturing to tailor products to regional tastes and capitalising on the surging demand for premium large-screen televisions in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the company is successfully adapting its global expertise to the Indian market. With strategic differentiation between the Hisense and Toshiba brands and upcoming expansions into the broader home appliance sector, Hisense aims to transition from a leading TV manufacturer to a top consumer brand in the country over the coming years.