It has two research and development (R&D) centres in the country, one in Noida for hardware for colour televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners, and the other at Bangalore for software development for LCD TVs, plasma panels, and digital media products.

Currently the Bangalore centre employs 700 while the Noida centre employs 300 people but this is being increased to 2500 and 1000 respectively, says H B Lee, president and CEO, Samsung South West Asia Regional Head Quarters.

"These numbers indicate that 10 per cent of our R&D workforce will be in India and this is a significant number for us."

The R & D centres have been responsible for the company making specific innovations for the Indian market like the silver nano technology in washing machines, or stabiliser- free refrigerators and refrigerators which maintain cool temperatures despite power cuts.

"Today our products are priced at a 6-per cent premium or over others and we remain the fastest growing company in consumer durables, says Ravinder Zutshi, deputy managing director Samsung India.

The company which has been growing at a CAGR of 20 to 27 per cent for the last six - seven years, is securing its future with a new facility at Sriperumbudur off Chennai, where it inaugurated its second plant on Tuesday 13 November (See: Samsung starts Flat TV, LCD production at second manufacturing unit at Sriperumbudur)

Towards No 2 in cell phone business
So confident is the company of the consumer mind share, that it is confident of gaining a 10-per cent or ,market share, making it the No 2 manufacturer of mobile phones and accessories where it is not perceived as being very visible.

"We are bringing new products in the cell phone segment which will have multimedia facilities and these two will be priced at a premium to other such products available," says Zutshi.

"Samsung India has grown in the last decade from Rs150 crore to $1.3 billion - and the new plant near Chennai will ensure that increased demands will be met," says Lee.

In the south, the fastest growing market for consumer durables, Samsung India has a 34 per cent market share. The rationale for locating its plant in Tamil Nadu, lies in the state being the fastest growing and the largest consumer durable purchasing state. Not surprisingly, high end products which are seeing rapid growth will be manufactured at the Chennai facility.

The new plant will manufacture flat and LCD televisions, doubling the existing capacity to 3.6 million units. This will be followed with automatic washing machines.

The first phase investment of $30 million would go to $100 million by 2010. The lucrative domestic market apart, the new plant which is located in an SEZ will become the company''''s global hub for exports, says Lee. The focus initially would be on the SAARC countries and Russia.

Samsung''''s Diwali dhamaka
Whatever the decline in the index of industrial production for September, Zutshi says that the GFK-ORG report on consumer durables has been very encouraging. In fact, Diwali had never been as good for Samsung India, which recorded a turnover of Rs100 crore during the festive season this year.

Compared to last year, the company has seen a 41 per cent jump in sales, this period. And the bonanza is far from over.

"We have seen refrigerators and washing machines growing in single digit percentages in the last six to ten years across the industry. However this year refrigerators have clocked a growth of 14.6 per cent to 16 per cent and washing machines 20.5 per cent. Even colour TVs which were growing at 7 to 8 per cent in the last five years has seen a growth of 12 to 14 per cent this year,'''''''' he says.

While there has been category growth across all consumer durables in the country, Samsung India has doubled, tripled or quadrupled the industry average.

For instance, if the industry recorded 16 per cent growth in refrigerators, Samsung India recorded 60 per cent growth. In flat TVs, the company has grown 29 per cent against industry growth of 20 per cent and in panel TVs it has seen 340 per cent growth against an industry average of 47 per cent.

Apart from televisions the company currently makes 1 million CDT monitors and half a million LCD monitors, half a million fully and semi automatic washing machines, similar number of window and split air-conditioners and five million units of GSM handsets.