Japan's Funai Electric to build LCD TV factory in Poland

Japan's Funai Electric Co. Ltd. will spend 7 billion yen (approximately $56.04 million) to build a plant in Poland to produce LCD TVs for the European market, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.

The new plant will have annual output capacity for 1.2 million units when the factory begins operating at the end of June 2007, doubling its entire capacity to around 2.4 million TVs a year later, the business daily said. Funai will employ some 1,000 workers at the new factory in 2008, targeting production of 15-inch to 37-inch TVs, it said. With the opening of the new Polish factory and plans to beef up its sales network, Funai aims to expand its share of the European market to around 8% in 2008 from just 1.6% last year, the report said.