New Straits Times

PENSONIC Holdings Bhd is developing several new lifestyle products that are set to be unveiled early next year.

Its chief executive officer Dixon Chew Chuon Jin said the products would be centred around Internet-computing and wearable devices.

“We are tapping our research and development capabilities and will be introducing new brands for the different products,” he said after the company’s 20th annual shareholders meeting, here, yesterday.

Targeted export markets for the new products would be Asean and the Middle East, Chew added.

“We are also in talks with Silicon Valley start-up companies of which we can partner and help commercialise their products in the Far East,” he added.

Pensonic was one of five Malaysian mid-tier companies participating in a “country-immersion visit” to the Silicon Valley in the United States recently, which was organised by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp.

“We are looking for technology partners with products that are close to be commercialised, and which can be distributed by us in the region. We are also looking at the possibility of obtaining licensing businesses and doing Original Design Manufacturing (ODM) activities for these firms,” Chew added.

Pensonic, which manufactures its own products and also carries out ODM manufacturing of established brand electrical home appliances, exports 30 per cent of its products while selling the remaining are for the local market.

Chew said the company plans to venture into developing products related to “the Internet of Things” (IOTs).

(The IOT is a term used to describe a state in which physical objects, including humans, are connected via an identifier, such as a micro-chip).

On Pensonic’s investments to develop its new line of products using available technology, Chew said the cost of RM250,000 for the purpose is being borne by Pensonic and five others, comprising local and foreign distribution and supply chain partners.

“We are doing trial runs now and the first product is a bluetooth/Wifi connected smartphone product that will debut in the first quarter of next year. We will embark on the IOTs and wearable devices later,” he added.

For its 2014 financial year ended May 31, Pensonic’s group revenue rose by 6.5 per cent to RM374 milllion from RM351 million in the previous year.

The board also declared a first and final single-tier dividend of two sen for 2014 fiscal year.