Gionee to make India a manufacturing base for Africa, SAARC regions

Chinese phone maker Gionee plans to shift manufacturing for the African and SAARC regions to a new upcoming factory in India as the company expands operations here.
The company, which has a nearly 6% share of the Indian smartphone+ market, is finalising a proposal for setting up the factory in Haryana, on the outskirts of Delhi, and this would act as the main sourcing base for its requirements in India as well as exports.
“We are working rapidly on the Haryana factory plan and expect to complete the formalities in this regard very soon. Actual production is expected to begin over the next two years once we move from here,” Arvind R Vohra, Country CEO & MD of Gionee+ India told TOI here.
The $5.5 billion Chinese company had earlier been a supplier to some of the Indian homegrown brands, but decided to make a foray in the country around four years back as smartphone sales started growing aggressively.
Vohra said that Gionee has already started procuring devices locally, and currently buys them from two contract manufacturers – Dixon and Foxconn.
“The new factory that we set up will see investments of around Rs 500 crore, and this excludes the land cost which is still being negotiated. We are looking at having an annual capacity of 30 million units from here, and this will charge up our expansion plans for India and some of the foreign markets.”
While a large part of the production from the new factory will be used for the domestic market, overseas sales will also be a significant part of the plan. “Markets in Africa and the SAARC region are similar to India in terms of product characteristics and requirements. We plan to service them from the Haryana factory.”
The company is bullish on the outlook in the Indian market, especially as there has been a large-scale acceptance of Chinese brands such as Vivo , Oppo , Xiaomi and Gionee. The Chinese brands have had a successful run with buyers and as per some estimates command for nearly 50% of new smartphone sales.
“While competition is stiff here, we are confident of our performance. We hope to close this fiscal with sales of 5 million units and a turnover of around Rs 4,000 crore. Last year, we sold 3 million units and had clocked a turnover of Rs 2,300 crore,” Vohra said.