How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

A D v- R T I S E M E N . 8
THE I,G GROLIP
Steadily Growing as a World-Class Business Group
he 48-vear-old Luckp-Goldstar
(LG) Group is steadily growing as a worldclass
<strong>business</strong> group . The company
changed its name ro LG in January bccause
the world is changing <strong>and</strong> <strong>business</strong> must
change with it, according to its new chairman,
Koo Bon-Moo .
LG is South Korea's third-largest <strong>business</strong>
group in terms of sales after Hyvndai
<strong>and</strong> Samsung, having achieved annual revenues
of $38 .27 billion <strong>and</strong> pre-tax earnings
of .`i 1 .3 billion last year.
LG was established in 1947 by Koo's
gr<strong>and</strong>father Koo In-Hwoi with a factor,v
manufacturing facial cream, soap <strong>and</strong>, larer,
toothpaste It has grown to become a global
<strong>business</strong> group with 39 subsidiaries, 39
joint venture subsidiaries <strong>and</strong> more than
130 branch offices scatrered around the
world, with a total oF 100,000 employees .
"Now LG is refocusing its efforts on
internationalization <strong>and</strong> globalization as it
continues to evolve into a world-class <strong>business</strong>
group in the 21st century," says the
new chairman, who succeeded his father
Koo Cha-Kyung in February .
LG is a leader in the countay's chemical
industry, producing everything from basic
chemicals to processed products, <strong>and</strong> lately is
concentrating on the advanced heids of high
polymer chemicals, specialry chemicals <strong>and</strong>
genetic engineering, exp<strong>and</strong>ing production
capaciry for advanced new materials such as
engineering plastics <strong>and</strong> silicone wafers .
Its subsidiary LG Chemical Ltd. chalked
up total sales of $3 .45 billion last year .
Another subsidiary, LG Petrochemical Co .
Ltd ., built a naphtha cracking plant in 1991
that produces 400,000 tons annually of this
high-qualiry petrochemical, while the start
of operations at HDPE <strong>and</strong> BTX plants in
1992 provides a stable supply of such basic
peaochemicais as ethylene, propylene, butadiene,
ultra-pure polyethyiene <strong>and</strong> BTX .
LG also runs an oil refinery that has a
daily crude oil refining capacity of 380,000
barrels, an annual polypropylene oroduction
capacity of 165,000 tons <strong>and</strong> an annual aromaric
aroduction capacity of 600,000 tons .
linder
the motto
"qualiry oil,
clear air,°
Honam Oil
Refinery Co .
Ltd . is
exo<strong>and</strong>ing
desulfurization
facilities <strong>and</strong>
adding heavy oil
cracking facilities to
reduce enviro.nmental pollution .
As South Korea's first electric <strong>and</strong> electronics
manufacturer <strong>and</strong> the domestic leader
in these industries, LG Electronics Inc . is
stepping up its globalization efforrs to manu-
Fccure its oroducts <strong>and</strong> sell in markets
around the world .
Its Goldstar br<strong>and</strong> is produced in 23
countries <strong>and</strong> is recognized in 171 countries
. LG btrilt a plant in the American
town of Hunrsville, Ala ., in 1991 which
produces 20 million videotapes a year. In
1986, it set up a plant in Worms, Germany,
producing 150,000 color TV sets <strong>and</strong>
500,000 VCRs a year. Its plant in Mexico,
built in 1988, is turning our nvo million
color TV sets annually.
LG is running a plant in Indonesia in a
joint venture with a local firm, producing
180,000 color TV sea <strong>and</strong> 70,000 refrigerators
a year. Similar joino-venture plants were set up
in Manila, Bangkok, Cairo <strong>and</strong> Shanghai .
LG is now pushing fnr a large-scale "China
projea," which aims to manufacture electric
<strong>and</strong> electronic products such as home appliances
<strong>and</strong> semiconductors, <strong>and</strong> petrochemical
products, dtereby generating an annual $6 biilion
in revenue by the year 2000 .
LG's telecommunications arm, LG Information
& Communications Ltd., has gained
fame for manufacnuing "Mugunghwa,"
Koreas first integrated communications <strong>and</strong>
broadc ;csting satellite, named for Koreas
national flower, the Rose of Sharon .
It has successfully developed a CD .I'L4
mobile cellular phone switching system, <strong>and</strong>
ia own br<strong>and</strong>, STARE.`{-TXi, was selected
"LG is refocusing
its
efforts on
internationailZatlo[l
<strong>and</strong> Qlobal-
IZBfIOn as it
evolves into a
wor:d-class <strong>business</strong>
group ."
as the best st<strong>and</strong>ardized switching system in
Korea. LG has exported a variety of switching
systems <strong>and</strong> other communications
equipment to more than 50 countries since
it first exporred electronic switching systems
to Vietnam six years ago .
As Korea's first semiconductor maker,
LG Semicon Co . Ltd . has enjoyed remarkable
growth by developing a 64M DRAM
in 1992, <strong>and</strong> is now pushing the boundaries
of technoloy with highly integrated, multifunctional,
high-speed semiconductors such
as Giga DRAM <strong>and</strong> 256M DRA .'vI, while
its software arm is striving to provide the
world's finest software to its customers . The
Korean government selected its Hana
Wordprocessor <strong>and</strong> Han Spreadsheet as
st<strong>and</strong>ard software for its administrative
computer network .
LG is also the largest domestic manufacturer
of electronic components such as
television nrners, magnetic heads, modulators,
variable resistors <strong>and</strong> switches, while
leading in the manufacture of precision
eiectronic instruments for the Korean
defense industr,v. It developed Korea's first
low-altitude radar system in 1991 <strong>and</strong> won
recognition for its advanced technoiogy
with the development of frequencyalternating
radio transceivers <strong>and</strong> artillery '
fire-control systems .
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