Philips offers Riga bread and circuses

RIGA - A traveling exhibition sponsored by Philips appliance sales and distributors filled Riga's Dome Square with rock music and good times for kids in celebration of new products and a new direction.

"We are taking Philips into entertainment and culture," Philips sales and marketing manager Uldis Kalnins said, displaying Philips large screen, flat TV that sells for 9,000 lats ($15,000). Kalnins does not expect the price to fall with popularity and sales because the TV set is expensive to manufacture, he said.

"Philips is following its customers' desires," he said. Three to four years ago, consumers were seeking the best deal in cheaper merchandise. Now they are seeking better quality."

Philips has set its Baltic sales target at a $30 million turnover in 1998, with $6 million coming from Latvia alone, said Aris Meilands, the company's audio and video sales director. Meilands refused to guess where the Philips Baltic market is biggest - in Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia - because it depends on the product, he said.

Turnover in the Baltics increased by 55 percent for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, with a 23 percent increase in Latvia. Philips' business is increasing in Eastern Europe with a turnover of 11 billion lats ($18.3 billion) in the first half of 1998 and a profit of 800 million lats.

The traveling show and its dirigible will visit 15 cities in seven countries.