Optiemus Infracom, the founder of the domestic mobile brand Zen Mobile, has signed a joint venture with Wistron Corporation, a Taiwan based original design manufacturer (ODM), to set up a mobile manufacturing unit in Noida, reports the Indian Express. Optiemus Infracom will own a majority stake in the project, as well as invest around $200 million in the next 5 years.
The first factory, expected to be 100,000 square feet large, will be commissioned by March next year. The unit will feature 16 manufacturing lines, be able to manufacture over 18 million devices per year and employ 2,500 people. According to the company, in the next two years, it will expand the facility to an industrial park, capable of manufacturing 100 million SMT (surface mounted technology) and mobile devices per year. Other than manufacturing Zen Mobile phones, the facility will an end-to-end manufacturing solution for other mobile brands as well.
Manufacturing in India: The Indian government has been encouraging domestic companies to start manufacturing electronics goods within the country instead of importing them and had approved a National Policy on Electronics. Since then, various smartphone manufacturers have said they will start manufacturing in India or have already started doing so.
– Various manufacturers have tied up with Foxconn to manufacture phones in India. Earlier this month, Oppo started contract manufacturing in India in partnership with Foxconn while in September, Gionee tied up with Foxconn and Dixon to manufacture its phones in India. In June, the company started making Xiaomi phones in the country.
– The month before, Foxconn was in talks with Adani Enterprises to form a joint venture (JV), likely to make iPhones in India. The company had first reported in June that it could possibly set up base in India to manufacture iPhones, iPads and iPods for Indian and international sales.
– In August, Lenovo started the local production of smartphones with Flextronics under a contract manufacturing deal at its Sriperumbudur plant.
– Videocon Mobile Phones, Videocon Group’s mobile company, started manufacturing mobile phones in the country.
– In June, homegrown mobile phone maker Celkon opened its first manufacturing unit in the country in Telangana.
– In March, Samsung and Sony had announced plans for setting up manufacturing bases in India as a part of the Make in India initiative.
– Earlier this year, Spice Group had said it would invest Rs 500 crores to set up a manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh.
– In January, smartphone maker Samsung Electronics revealed that it had invested Rs 517 crore towards the expansion of its mobile phone plant in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Subsequently, the company reported that it would invest as much as $500 million to $1 billion in the manufacturing unit.
– Sony too wants in on the action: at the MWC in Barcelona this year, Kenichiro Hibi, the head of Sony’s India operations, said that the company was planning to launch an Indian manufacturing unit ‘very soon’.
