The company also has plans to increase the amount of Indian components it outsources to 70 per cent from the current 50 per cent. This is expected to result in 10 per cent savings for the company and a five per cent reduction in the prices of its products every year for the customer.

The company has registered an 80 per cent growth in its sales turnover for the year 2000 at Rs 1903 crore compared to Rs 1056 crore in the previous year. It is targeting a total turnover of Rs 2,500 crore for the next year and exports of $100 million by 2003. It is currently exporting to Singapore, Dubai, Ivory Coast, the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

According to Mr KR Kim, managing director of LG Electronics India, to realise its sales and exports targets, the company is investing an additional $20 million each at its Noida facility for manufacturing frost-free refrigerators and compressors for refrigerators; $10 million each for making fully-automatic washing machines and TV monitors. At present, it indigenously manufactures only TVs and semi-automatic washing machines.

The expansion will be partly funded by profits and partly from an IPO it is planning to come out with shortly, said Mr Kim. He, however, refused to give details of the company's IPO plans.

The company is increasing its thrust on its IT line of products, including assembly of PC monitors and entry into new segments like notebook PCs, LCD TV monitors and finger print monitors etc. It expects the contribution of IT products to the sales turnover double this year to 20 per cent. At present, about 40 per cent of its revenues come from televisions alone, 40 per cent from home appliances and only 10 per cent from IT products. In line with its new focus area, the company has inaugurated its exclusive IT products service centre in Chennai and plans a network of such centres to offer `on-site service'.