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The company wants to raise the percentage of sales outside Western Europe to 30 per cent by 2013 from 18 per cent last year, Goering said in an interview. Villeroy & Boch plans to expand the Nahm Sanitary unit it agreed to buy in March and use the Thai company as a springboard to the Indian market. Nahm employs 800 people. "If we want to continue to grow and stay in our current business, it is going to have to happen abroad," Goering said.

Sales of bath fixtures and furnishings, the company's mainstay, declined 9 per cent in the first three months in Germany and France. "Results in the bath and wellness division, at least through the first half, will be similar to what we saw in the first quarter," Goering said.

The company may redirect output from its Mexican facility toward Asia or Europe as a slowdown in home construction hinders sales in the US, he said.

Villeroy & Boch fell 2 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to ¤9.10 on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of ¤253 million (Bt13.5 billion).

Sales in the first four months rose 2.8 per cent to ¤185.6 million at the bath division and gained 21 per cent to ¤111 million at the tableware unit. Pretax profit for the whole company rose more than 30 per cent to ¤10.3 million in the four months.

"We want sales above 1 billion euros and we expect to reach this in 2010," Goering said. Villeroy & Boch is on target to increase sales 6 per cent to meet the company's forecast of ¤900 million this year, he said.