New Delhi: Chinese smartphone maker Vivo will invest ₹1,100 crore in a new 169-acre manufacturing unit in Greater Noida this year, which is likely to be operational by 2024, said Yogendra Sriramula, the company’s India brand strategy head, in an interaction.
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone maker Vivo will invest ₹1,100 crore in a new 169-acre manufacturing unit in Greater Noida this year, which is likely to be operational by 2024, said Yogendra Sriramula, the company’s India brand strategy head, in an interaction.
The investment is part of ₹7,500 crore committed by company, which will be used to double its manufacturing capacity to 120 million units a year from its existing manufacturing units that have come up over last four to five years.
The investment is part of ₹7,500 crore committed by company, which will be used to double its manufacturing capacity to 120 million units a year from its existing manufacturing units that have come up over last four to five years.
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“In phase 1, we said will invest ₹3,500 crore. This plan is on track, we have already invested ₹2,400 crore and the remaining ₹1,100 crore will be invested during the rest of this year. By the beginning of next year, we should be able to start phase one of our new manufacturing facility,” he said.
Sriramula said that Vivo would export over 1 million smartphones on a large scale in 2023, after facing initial hurdles on the hands of Indian customs authorities last year when it began exports to Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
“Our manufacturing standards in India meet global standards and we have the capability to meet the demands from any part of the world. We are present in 60+ countries and regions and will be able to export devices wherever there is demand,” he said.
While all of Vivo’s smartphones are made locally, the brand intends to increase the number of components it sources locally and also sub-components that go into assembling of smartphones. Vivo currently assembles all motherboards used in the smartphones using surface-mounted technology. About 95% of the battery components, 70% of chargers and earphones are locally sourced.
“There are more components that we are looking at. Display is the next thing that we want to focus on. There are some MoUs that we have signed,” Sriramula said but did not elaborate.
He said that the brand will continue to focus fiercely on the offline sales channels, through 70,000 touchpoints and 260 exclusive stores, even as a significant part of the Indian retail sales now come from online channels.
“I would say our investment in retail matches our broad investments in manufacturing. So that’s how focused we are,” he said, adding that retailers that were part of Vivo’s sales network were making a fifth of their total revenues from selling Vivo smartphones.
Offline, or brick-and-mortar, stores are set to gain a much larger prominence in the coming weeks and months with Apple opening its flagship stores in the country next week, according to market watchers. Customer experience in these stores and the iconic design of the stores is likely to drive other brands, specially in the premium segment, to beef up their strategies, even as the overall Indian smartphone market experiences stagnation.
Sriramula said that Vivo has been the largest player in the offline market over the past 13 quarters, and it increased market share in the premium segment–upwards of ₹30,000–to 13% in 2023 from 0.3% in 2019. Vivo intends to cement its position in the segment which is bringing large revenues by value but it will equally focus on the sub- ₹15,000 segment through its affordable 5G smartphone range, T2X, which it launched for ₹12,000 earlier this week.
“India’s smartphone market will continue to grow. What we have right now is seen as a temporary blip. But I think in future it will continue to grow. There are still 250 feature phone users for under 50 million feature for users out there in the market. They will transition at some point in time,” he added.
