New Delhi
March 18th, 2008

With the objective to leverage its retail presence in the PC segment, LG Electronics India is on an expansion mode with plans to increase its channel base across the country. The company has recently signed up retail partners for six LG exclusive outlets and 45 multi-brand retail outlets.

The vendor is in the process of holding discussions with interested partners who want to work in the PC business. It currently has 225 retail partners across the country and the number is likely to increase by 40 once the first phase of branding and campaigning is finished. LG plans to initiate the process of branding in the first week of April, which will kick start with a nationwide campaign. Over the next two to three months, LG has planned to give a completely new look and image to its exclusive retail stores in order to draw a large number of customers.

"Retail being the focus for the year we are seeing increased display range in large format stores. LG is trying to initiate discussion with all interested partners who want to work on high-end products and are looking forward to a long term association in future," said V Ramachandran, Director-Sales and Marketing, LG Electronics India.

LG has also increased its manpower strength in the southern market in accordance with the growth in the PC category. Speaking on the strategies that the company has planned to work on retail business and channel expansion, Ramachandran said that LG had made a comprehensive channel classification and deliverable plan, and currently it is building up channel across all possible segments which includes PC channel, large format retail and distributor category. He further added that LG had rolled out a long-term channel payout structure to build relationships with all categories of channel.

Sharing his views about the channel strategy of LG, Manoj Gupta, CEO, Challenger Computers, an LG dealer in New Delhi, said that the vendor is doing good business in PC segment and the demand for their PCs has been steadily increasing. "The strategy of expanding their reach by focusing on retail presence is the right approach and the market share for LG would surely grow in the coming years," said Gupta.

According to an LG dealer, the IT market has been going through a slow phase, which has affected all the brands and the vendors need to come up with innovative strategies that are efficient enough to attract customers.

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