LG to make India export hub

From chapatis of north India to coconut chutney of south India, you would in the near future be able to prepare a whole range of traditional Indian food on your microwave.

South Korean chaebol LG Electronics Gasan R&D centre is working with its Indian counterpart in Greater Noida to make its microwaves enabled to cook large number of traditional Indian dishes from all parts of the country.

The company, which already has mircowaves with ‘Indian Rasoi’ feature that helps cook some popular Indian dishes, is undertaking this major R&D exercise as part of its strategy to enter more Indian homes. It is also planning to aggressively take up other health-friendly home appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners. The company, is pumping in Rs 400 crore this year to upgrade its production facilities in India, around 75 per cent of which will be earmarked for the Pune plant, the rest to its Greater Noida plant.  The India thrust, says LGE President & CEO Young-ha Lee, is to make India export hub for Europe and Central Asian markets, in addition to already catering to the Gulf region, Nepal and Bhutan. “Our plan is to grow LG India’s revenues to Rs 17,000 crore by this year end, which means 30 per cent growth over the Rs 13,089 crore turnover of 2009,” he added.

More launches

LGE India Business Head (Home Appliances) Rajeev Jain, the company plans to launch its “chapati-making” microwave soon. Further, he said, a new range of refrigerators, equipped with LG’s patented linear compressors that saves up to 18 per cent energy, is less noisy, would also be introduced in India by July-end.