Gionee to initially manufacture in India through EMS

The company is expected to double its revenue from India this year

Chinese mobile manufacturer Gionee is looking at starting manufacturing its products in India through third party manufcaturing facilities, as part of its plans to manufacture its products in India to cater the growing market. The company is expected to double its revenue from India from the last year's RS 2,700 crore, said Arvind R Vohra, the country head of Gionee India.

When asked the status of starting manufacturing operations in India, Vohra said last week in Chennai, "I was in this part of the country having a look at some factories." However, he said that the company is not looking at the Nokia plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai.

"We are looking at an Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) initially, which is third party contact manufacturing. Once that is sorted, then slowly we will start getting our own footprint," he said. The already announced plans are to invest around $50 million in the country over a period of three years.

Last year, the Gionee India sold around four million devices and around Rs 2,750 crore was the revenue. This year, the company would like to cross the Rs 5,000 crore mark in revenue, he added.

Speaking about the manufacturing capabilities for mobile phones in India at present, he said that right now the assembly will take place in India and slowly, as more and more people come in, the ecosystem will develop and obviously the component industry will also develop alongside.

The company is also setting up R&D centre in India and already has a group of people joined in the division. "India is a big market, if we can manage on our own, that would be a great thing," he added.