When Eric Agius paid his first visit to Seoul, Korea, six weeks ago, the first thing he saw upon clearing customs was a giant display screen built by LG Electronics Inc.

It was like a giant welcome mat, as if to say, “Welcome to LG’s home turf.”

As the new chief executive of LG Canada — the first Canadian to head the Korean consumer electronics giant’s operations in this country — Mr. Agius’s assignment is a simple, if challenging, one: to make LG as familiar to Canadians as it is to Koreans, bringing that home-field advantage to the Great White North.

“The LG brand is everywhere in Korea,” Mr. Agius said in an interview. “You can’t drive 100 metres without feeling or experiencing the brand in Seoul.”

“LG is a tremendous Korean corporation, but we’re a company for the world. That approach the company has taken is really going to allow local leaders to succeed and feel at home quickly in this company.”

To a certain extent, LG’s stated goal of taking Canadians from “knowing” the brand to “loving” the brand is simply an extension of a broader transformation of the company that began in 1995.

Formerly known as Goldstar Co., LG has worked hard to shed its identity as a builder of discount televisions and air conditioners, and shift to the LG brand, now synonymous with slick consumer products and its “Life’s Good” slogan.

The company is now the second-largest producer of televisions in the world, and is the third-largest producer of cellphones. More than 85% of the company’s revenues now come from outside Korea.

Mr. Agius was brought in as chief operating officer in March — after spending 14 years at Nike Inc. — and spent the next nine months learning the intricacies of the Korean company from outgoing Canadian CEO William Cho, a 23-year LG veteran who will now take over the country’s operations in Australia.

“If we want to truly globalize our company, we have to do two things,” Mr. Cho said. “We really have to standardize the processes and systems across the LG world, and second, to globalize you have to localize with people who have understanding and insight into the local market.”

While other companies posted a drop in sales as the world’s economy reeled in 2008, LG’s annual sales rose modestly from US$43.97-billion to US$44.72-billion. However, as the recession began to abate in 2009, LG’s sales improved. The most recent quarter was the best third quarter in the company’s history, with US$11.2-billion in revenue, up 16% over the same period a year prior. LG Canada does not break out its sales.

“We really looked at this economic downturn as an opportunity,” Mr. Agius said. “There were two things that we felt really strongly about, one was our brand, and the other was our people.”

While other companies curtailed advertising and sponsorship during the downturn, LG stepped up its branding campaigns, including signing a deal with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment to outfit the Air Canada Centre in Toronto with thousands of LG Television screens.

Although LG is the world’s third-largest cellphone manufacturer — with about 10% of the market, behind only Nokia and Samsung — the company remains a bit player in the exploding market for multifunction smart phones, a category which is dominated by Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerrys and Apple Inc.’s iphone.

However, LG has big plans for its mobile division, which grew 35% last year, and is steadily rolling out new smart phones with touch screens and QWERTY keyboards.

This year, LG launched the Eve, which runs on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, with Rogers Communications Inc. and the IQ, a Windows Mobile device, through Telus.

Financial Post

mhartley@nationalpost.com