Invest on manufacturing units, says LGEL head

Kolkata, Jan 21: LG Electronics India Ltd, IT division of LG, will launch a number of new products in the next financial year.

Speaking to sources, LGEIL IT Division Business Group Head R Manikandan here today said, ''We plan to launch more products in most categories like Notebooks, PC, Monitors and couple of other innovative convergence products.'' He said,''India is an important market and we have huge plans for it. Firstly, we would be introducing some innovative and state-of-the-art technology products, which will take the market by storm. Secondly, our focus on distribution would also increase this year.

''We plan to tie up with major distributors and increase our channel partners. LGEIL have also pioneered the concept of experiential shopping in IT with exclusive LG Cyber shoppes. These provide customers the opportunity to come and see the product, operate and understand it completely before buying it.

''We plan to invest on manufacturing and increase our production capacity. With IT being one of the key focus area for LGEIL, one can definitely say that LG IT division is going to be aggressive with coming years,'' he said.

In Monitors, the company aims to be one of the top players with close competition from Samsung. In the Desktop PCs, LG ranks 3rd in the consumer PC segment. In Notebooks market the top slots are taken up by HP, Acer, Toshiba and Lenovo. ''But this year we will definitely increase our market share in this category as well. The IT Division of LGEIL is the key focus area for the company in 2007 backed by an aggressive growth strategy, he said.

In 2006, the company achieved revenues of Rs 8,250 crore with a contribution of 13 per cent from its IT division. With its extensive marketing strategy and state-of-the-art products the LG IT Division is targeting, a growth of 20 per cent over 2006.

UNI