To begin with, the company has planned an investment of Rs 500 crore towards backward integration into compressors and compressor components.

The plant, being set up near Bangalore with a capacity of 2.4 million compressors per annum, would be commissioned by December this year, the group president PN Dhoot told journalists at the company's plant at Aurangabad on Thursday.

Videocon would also focus on the export market, Europe in particular, drawing synergy from its 50:50 joint venture with Necci Compressori of Italy, he said.

``By the year end, we will increase our stake to 84 per cent in the Italian company,'' Dhoot said adding that Videocon would commence assembling of colour television sets in Italy by September-end.

``The commissioning of the compressor plant will not onlyensure quality but also reduce input costs by 10 per cent,'' Dhoot said.