Originally Published 18 December 2009
Australian TV manufacturer, Vivo International, is now going international with the company’s first overseas orders going to Israel after an inspection by an Israeli delegation found the company’s China factory to be ‘kosher’.
New Zealand is the next country that Vivo plans to export into, but for now, Vivo International is proud to be supplying TVs to Israel buyers, who reportedly had strict requirements on quality.
“They inspected the factory prior to making the decision and the big benefits to them were the level quality control we provide, and the fact that the quality control is in-house, as well as the price of the TVs,” he said. “But also the fact that we buy the components ourselves and they felt comfortable with the quality.
“The first order was in September, when they bought 1,000 42-inch LCDs and 1,000 47-inch LCDs,” said Vivo International managing director, Fabio Grassia. “Then in November they repeated the order with 1,500 42-inch LCDs and 1,500 47-inch LCDs.”
Israel is still broadcasting in MPEG2 but the Israeli buyers apparently indicated that MPEG4 may be 12 months away for them. However there were a few key changes that had to be made to the TVs to make them .
“The solution board had to be modified and the language on the user manual. We give them the user manual, they translate it and we print it for them. And we also put the Hebrew language into the solution board so they have Hebrew language on the TV.
“And we did the whole thing in four weeks and they liked that. The whole focus of the China factory is to build the Vivo brand internationally.
“New Zealand is next year. I’m talking to a few retailers now and New Zealand is already on MPEG 4, so any TVs we sell to them all have to be MPEG4.”
In terms of new technologies, 2010 will be a big year for Vivo.
“Next year we’ve got LEDs coming up late January, and then we are looking at models where people can record TV using a USB thumb drive.”