Thomson Consumer Electronics India Ltd -- the $16 billion electronic giant's Indian arm -- will soon start exporting colour televisions (CTVs) to Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

"We will also be supplying to Australia and New Zealand," Thomson India managing director V Kumar Chopra said.

Chopra said Thomson's Thailand unit, with an annual production capacity of five million sets, would now focus its attention on markets in the United States and Europe, which need large volumes.

"It does not make economic sense to use the large plant in Thailand to cater to smaller markets like Malaysia and Hong Kong. But we can effectively use our facility in India to supply to these countries," Chopra said.

Thomson India would export about 60,000 sets per year to begin with, he said,adding that eventually, India would be catering to all Asian markets except China.

As part of its strategy to consolidate in the country, Thomson would soon flood the market with a wide range of CTVs, especially in the less expensive category, and audio and video disc players, Chopra said.

Thomson, having sold 1.20 lakh CTVs in 1998, now hopes to increase its 5 per cent market share to 6.5 per cent in the current year by riding on the new launches.

"We are hopeful of selling 1.80 lakh CTVs in 1999 and increasing our turnover to Rs 300 crore. Our target turnover for the year 2000 is Rs 500 crore," Chopra said.

He said 20 per cent of the total revenue in 1999 would be contributed by sales of low end products, which had a large market in rural India.

While Thomson would add ten more new models, all in the low end, to the current range of 23 CTVs, its audio segment would be expanded by a host of new products, Chopra said.

Having entered in India by the end of 1994 through a joint venture with theReddys of Dyanora, Thomson had increased its stake in the venture to 86 per cent from the initial 51 per cent by infusing Rs 61 crore.

The Reddys currently hold 14 per cent share out of the total equity of Rs 70 crore.

Chopra said the company had adopted a marketing strategy whereby new market segments would be created for products, to be backed up by proper advertisements.

"We do not believe in spending in huge amounts of money in advertisement. Our strategy is to gain market share even as we make profits," he said.

Thomson had spent about Rs 20 crore for advertisement in 1998 and the same amount would be earmarked for 1999 as well.

At a time when other consumer electronic makers are vying with each other for advertising in sports channels during the coming cricket World Cup, Thomson would tread a different path to place its promotionals in news channels, Chopra said.

"We will not put our ads in sports channels among the numerous other advertisements, because chances of your advertisementsgetting noticed are less. Instead we would advertise in news channels as these channels have a dedicated viewership."

Terming the Union budget as a `passive budget', Chopra said the excise duty hike and corporate tax surcharge would entail a 2 per cent cost increase for Thomson.

However, he said there would not be any price increase for the company's products.

"Taxes today account for about 50 per cent of a CTV's price in the country. If the government reduces the taxes, the prices can be brought down significantly and this would help the market grow faster," Chopra said.

Though the CTV market in the country grew by 35 per cent in 1998, this rate still fell short of expectations of the multinationals about India.

Chopra said CTV market was expected to grow by only 18-20 per cent in 1999 as against last year and urged the government to lower the taxes to help the industry.