MUMBAI: The Home shopping business in India which has major players Home Shop 18, Shop CJ, Den - Snapdeal, Naptol and the latest entry Best Deal TV, was rattled by reports of two senior officials of Shop CJ Network moving. There were rumours of CEO Kenny Shin and CFO Ramakrishnan N being sacked by the top management.
"Not sacked, just going back to handle different responsibilities" says Shin in an exclusive interaction with Indiantelevision.com. "We have performed better than we expected and hence sacking for underperformance is beyond question," he adds.
"Rs 850 crore was our estimate and we have had sales of Rs 900 crore which shows we over performed. We re-branded ourselves, we transformed from Star CJ to Shop CJ, launched two regional channels. So it has been an action packed year for us," explains Shin.
A few months ago, in an interview with Indiantelevision.com, Shin had shared a different number for sales estimates. He had said, "We are poised to cross Rs 1,200 crore turnover this year, recording a 40 per cent growth over sales of Rs 850 crore achieved in the last calendar year. Our channel reaches to more than 6.5 crore households in India and currently caters to about 40 per cent of the market.”
Costs incurred by the company have also gone up significantly this year. As per information from a source close to the development, Shop CJ spent around Rs 70 crore last year (2014 - 15) which skyrocketed this year. "We were looking at spends of Rs 200 crore from the very beginning, as I told you earlier, we were looking ahead at this year to garner maximum reach and sales and hence higher spends were done to have better marketing and distribution," asserts Shin.
What about the CFO Ramakrishnan N? Has he also been moved to take on other responsibilities? "No!" exclaims Shin. "He has two daughters and a family in Bengaluru, and since the past one year he has been traveling a lot to and fro, which was getting difficult for him. So he decided to step down as the CFO and will now move back in with his family. He has done a wonderful job as the CFO and we wish him best of luck," Shin adds.
"I am headed back to Korea by this month end and it was a great four year journey in India" Shin concludes.
Meanwhile the network has announced SR Yoon as the new CEO of Shop CJ India to replace Kenny Shin, and in an official letter to its employees mentioned it is looking for a new CFO.