KOLKATA: Unfazed by the slowdown, LG Electronics India has revised upwards its revenue and recruitment targets for 2009. The Korean consumer electronics firm expects revenue to grow by 20-25% against the original target of 15%. It also plans to ramp up its recruitment and create 3,500 jobs this year compared to its earlier estimate of 2,200 jobs.

LG India is the country’s largest consumer electronics firm by way of revenue. The company’s latest projections come on the heels of LG India achieving sales growth upwards of 22% since January. In April and May ’09, the company saw a near 50% sales growth.

“In the backdrop of such high sales growth, we are confident of surpassing initial revenue and headcount expansion targets. We are hopeful of growing our festive season revenue (July to December ) by nearly 35% to Rs 7,500 crore,” LG Electronics India director (HR & management support) YV Verma said.

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LG India achieved Rs 10,730 crore turnover in calendar 2008 and has a pool of some 3,600 employees on its rolls. While it plans to create nearly 3,000 bluecollar jobs for its services and retail network, the balance 500-odd people will be absorbed in sales, marketing and R&D functions.

“We increased our market-share in all product categories by 1-4 % in the January-March quarter. In fact, we achieved market leadership in the LCD TV segment. We enjoy the third position in the GSM handset turf with a 7% market share behind Samsung. The strategy is to attain the second slot by October,” LG India head (East) Ranjit Kumar said.

The company has undertaken a spate of initiatives to ensure such a high growth rate - roll out India-centric products, build its brand, motivate employees through rewards and complete decentralisation of branches across the nation. It is also building a separate team to focus on secondary sales (from dealer to consumer ) based on localised promotions.

“In fact, we just rewarded all our employees with 200% bonus of their basic pay for the stellar performance in the January-March quarter. We have also given an average salary increment of 9.5%. LG India has reduced its attrition rate from 18% in 2007 to just 3.5% now,” said Mr Verma.