To cut costs and comply with the government’s Make in India initiative, Flipkart has moved a significant portion of its manufacturing and sourcing for private label brands, sold across 300 categories such as home appliances, furnishings, electronics, computer and fashion accessories, from China and Malaysia to India over the past year, the Economic Times reported. Adarsh Menon, head of private label business at Flipkart, told the newspaper that 100% of its electronics came from China two years ago, but that number is now down to 50%. He also said the when the company launched its furniture brand, the entire range was sourced from Malaysia, but now less than 50% of it furniture stock comes from abroad. Flipkart’s private brands, which include MarQ, Perfect Homes, Billion, and SmartBuy, contribute about 8% to the company’s overall sales. According to Menon, of the 150 factories the company works with, about 100 are in India. However, the company did not reveal the split in terms of the value of goods manufactured in India as opposed to China and Malaysia. Flipkart also said that many of Walmart’s private labels are also sourced from India. The development comes just a few days after Mint reported that Walmart may soon sell Myntra products in the US. Private labels and the e-commerce policy Flipkart’s move to repatriate manufacturing and sourcing processes to India comes at a time when the Indian government has imposed higher import tariffs on smartphones and other-value electronics to encourage technology giants such as Apple to…
