To popularise its hearing aids, the company is holding workshops and seminars in schools, clinics and institutes across urban areas of India, even as the officials felt buoyant after the response it got in the first year of operation in the country.

'We have brought over 40 years of knowledge and expertise in offering solutions to hearing impaired globally. Through seminars, we plan to expand our product dispensing network, besides improves after sales and service dealers,' said Rene Buergin, chief audiologist and product trainer, at a press conference yesterday.

The company launched its latest digital hearing aid, Savia which has an EasyPhone feature that converts inputs automatically to make telephone conversation more comfortable. 'This digital hearing instrument is equipped with a high performance microchip of 2.7 x 3.7 mm size with six million transistors for a processing capacity like that of Intel Pentium to adopt to all sound environment by using a multi-based automatic programme,' Buergin said. Savia hearing aid since its global launch in October had sales of over one lakh units and it comes along with a FM transmitter for a two-way interaction in a class of deaf students. The transmitter, a wireless product, enhances the hearing of those fitted with Savia as it worked in multi-level acoustic frequencies.

Priced at Rs 1.25 lakh, Savia has many add-ons like auto-pilot, auto-focus and sound cleaning for optimal audibility in a digital surround zoom and a wind-noise management for a clear sound signal. This digital hearing aid is a behind-the-ear product and has a 2-year warranty.

The company has four services in Chennai (for South), Mumbai (West), Delhi (North) and Kolkata (East) and 'we have a revolving stock of five lakh spare parts and product stock of 20 lakh for a prompt repair service of hearing aids,' said Ramana Rao, marketing manager, Phonak AG India, based in Chennai. A service engineer has acquired basic training in Switzerland and an advanced course in the US recently to cater to the service requirements for products sold in India, he said.

'Once the hearing aid market grows as expected, there will be more need to set up repair and service centres nearer to regional markets in the country. Hence, through Phonak Premium Partner Programme (4Ps) we identify key people and institutes who could multiply our dispensing network in India,' said Gelek Tashi, manager, International Sales, Phonak AG. Gelek said the company had identified 50 key people as part of 4Ps initiative and had invested Rs 20 lakh in a pilot study of a school in Mumbai to understand the hearing aid requirements and felt needs of the students and parents.

As of now, Phonak AG has over 250 dispensing network which would be nearly doubled in the next two years through awareness workshops and seminars for identified schools and clinics, said Gelek. There are eight different Phonak brands available in India at a price range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 1.25 lakh. Phonak AG, a major in wireless technologies, had global sales of Swiss franc 679 million last year with Asia Pacific contributing eight per cent of the income. 'We hope to achieve an income of 20 per cent from Asia Pacific in near future with focus on emerging markets like India for our hearing aid solutions,' Gelek said.