Whirlpool India Ltd (WIL), a group company of the US-based Whirlpool Corp, is expecting to top the consumer appliances market by 2010, adopting a quarter-wise planning cycle.

While the company will invest $30 million over two years on product innovation, it is planning to rationalise its spending on brand promotion and marketing in the context of an economic slowdown in India, a top company official said here Saturday.

Santanu Das Gupta, vice president (marketing), said even as the consumers have to be constantly given newer choices, the distribution has to be done in view of the demand.

“By growth, we mean to remain ahead of the market and slow down at a lower pace than the slowdown of the overall economy and grow at a faster pace than the growth of the economy. So economic slowdown or growth does not affect our growth plan,” Das Gupta said.

Whirlpool is looking at a 20% plus market share in refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines and air conditioners by 2010, but its approach would be determined ‘quarter-wise’, Das Gupta said.

“We don’t want to go into any long-erm brand promotion contract or even distribution contract but will like to review every contract on a quarterly basis,” Das Gupta added.

“Whirlpool India has been spending Rs 60-70 crore every year on advertisements but at a slowdown period, spending on advertisements has to be done cautiously,” he added.

At present, the total market size of white goods in India is worth around Rs 10,000 crore, in which Whirlpool’s brand of white goods has an average of 15% share with 22% in refrigerators, 15% in washing machine and 8-9% in microwave ovens.

The market size is expected to grow by another Rs 2,000 crore by 2010, in which Whirlpool India’s share is also expected to grow, Das Gupta said.

“We have been growing at around 10% year on year in all the categories but this year there has been some moderation in growth, especially during the festive season and even after that,” he added.

The company reported a turnover of Rs 1971 crore and in the first six months (April-September) of 2008-09 posting a net profit of Rs 46.32 crore.