Many foreign companies have tried—and failed—to make a deep impression on the Indian market in recent years.
LG's first attempt to enter it (in the early 1990s, as Lucky Goldstar) floundered as a result of difficulties the company encountered working with local importers. But since 1997, following the Indian government's green light for a state-of-the-art white-goods factory at Greater Noida, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the South Korean chaebol has scarcely glanced back.
LG Electronics India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Seoul-based parent, bet big on India, and the gamble is paying off. LG's share of the Indian market (by volume) is currently 29.4 percent in refrigerators, 26.5 percent in color TVs, 35.8 percent in washing machines, and a crushing 38.0 percent in microwave ovens. A second factory, at Ranjangaon, near Pune—India's first facility for manufacturing GSM1 handsets—has been turning out white goods and mobile phones since October 2004. LG's Indian market share in GSM handsets is now 6 percent and rising.
The company's ambitions don't stop there. LG Electronics India has set itself a revenue target of $10 billion by 2010—five times the present level—as it positions itself to attack the fast-growing Indian information and communications...