According market sources, ``In order to cater to Western markets, the company plans to set up a manufacturing and research & development facility in Europe.'' This is expected to boost the company's export income. The company also plans to enter the Indian markets with their compact disks which are expected to be launched by the end of this month.

The company is the largest exporter (accounts for 80 per cent of its turnover) of diskettes in the country. Moser Baer India is currently ranked the eighth largest manufacturer of floppy diskettes in the world with an annual capacity of 1400 lakh disks. As the company is setting up a facility in Europe and main production facility in India, the company will be able to have advantage of both, low cost production and customised service for different clients.

At present, Moser Baer Ltd is setting up a facility to manufacture recordable and erasable compact disks(CDs) and digital video disks in Noida. The plant, which will have a capacity of 150 million units and is estimated to cost about Rs 340 crore, will be fully operational by the end of April next year. The company has tied up with International Financial Corporation, Washington, State Bank of India, Exim Bank and Industrial Development Bank of India for funding this project. The recordable project is being implemented in a phased manner by adding three-four lines of production every month. The present output from the plant is around 25 million units.

CDs have more storage space as compared to floppy diskettes. One CD has about 650 mega byte storage space, while a 3.5 inch floppy has only 1.544 mega byte storage space. According to an analyst with a NSE broker, ``With the increased use of internet, the demand for storage space is likely to increase which would definitely accelerate the demand for CDs. However, it is unlikely that the floppies would be totally eliminated from the market since CDs are expensive.'' Thus there is no fears of CDs wipping out diskettes from the market.

Set up in 1983, Moser Baer India today has a global market share of 3 per cent in floppy diskettes with an annual sales turnover of Rs 101.3 crore. About 80 per cent of the production is being exported mainly to European countries and US. While Moser Baer has a 15 per cent market share in Europe, its market share in US is less than 1 per cent.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) holds about $17 million equity in the company, while GF Electra holds about $ 8 million equity in the company. The customer list of the company includes Sony, Kodak and More, Netherlands.