"During 1998, the refrigerator industry grew by 22 per cent while washing machines grew at 17 per cent but we grew faster than that and will continue to have double digit growth this year too," he said."The turnaround will happen and we will wipe out the accumulated losses soon," D'Silva said.

He was in Pune to flag off the export shipment of Whirlpool's CFC free no frost refrigerator, which crossed the 10,000 unit mark. Refrigerators manufactured at the company's plant in Ranjangaon, Pune are being exported to 10 countries across the world including two countries in Europe and North America.

He, however, would not put a figure on the value of units exports or the exact destination of the units exported. The Ranjangaon plant also crossed the one lakh unit production mark. The CFC free refrigerator plant atRanjangaon has an installed capacity of four lakh units a year and the project cost the company Rs 326 crore. The production of CFC refrigerators is expected to go up to two lakh by next year. D'Silva claimed that Whirlpool has cornered 25 per cent share in the white goods industry.