LG India is eyeing 20 per cent sales growth this year, as it expects India to be among its key markets in the next few years.
The company, which displayed 70 new ‘futuristic’ products and its 2013 product line-up across categories here on Tuesday, said it was also working towards developing an LED TV that could be priced in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
Swoon Kwon, Managing Director, LG Electronics, said the LED TV was being developed jointly in India and Korea and could be a ‘game changer’ as cheaper LED or LCD products were required to upgrade the regular TVs, though he did not spell out the specifics.
The company said in the second half of this year, it would be launching 55-inch OLED televisions, which will be the “largest, slimmest and offer high-quality picture technology”. The company has already launched the premium 84-inch ultra HD TV.
On the challenging economic conditions, Kwon said in the past two years, the consumer durables market had slowed down in India. “We have always had very positive expectations from the Indian economy for various reasons, though that has come down. We are yet to see how things improve or further slow down. So, we are cautious. We would like to see some real practical good turnaround in the Indian economic sentiment…which is not manipulated or artificially created,” he added.
He said March had seen flat growth compared with last year since the summers were delayed. “Though in the first two weeks of April we have seen good business in compressor products like ACs and refrigerators,” he added.
On the new ‘futuristic’ products like the OLED TV, pocket photo printer, X Boom audio system and Aramid Home Theatre, he said, “We are introducing a new range of flat panel televisions including Jazz and Transform TV, with which we are targeting 30 per cent market share in flat panel displays.”
About rural growth, he said since last year LG had seen 15-18 per cent contribution from rural regions. The company achieved a turnover of Rs 16,000 crore in 2012 in India, which contributes 6 per cent to its global revenues.