Lava appoints Sanjeev Agarwal as Chief Manufacturing Officer

Sanjeev brings with him around 24 years of rich experience of working in the operations/manufacturing sector which will help in augmenting Lava's manufacturing capabilities, says company's Chairman and MD

Homegrown handset maker Lava has appointed Sanjeev Agarwal as the Chief Manufacturing Officer to spearhead its plan to set up a mobile phone manufacturing unit in India.

Before joining LAVA, Agarwal has worked as Operations Head with Lite-On Mobile and General Manager (Operations) with Moser Baer India, the firm said in a statement.

Agarwal will play a key role in providing fillip to the company's plan of starting a manufacturing unit in India," it added.

"Sanjeev brings with him around 24 years of rich experience of working in the operations/manufacturing sector which will help in augmenting Lava's manufacturing capabilities and also focus on starting domestic production of Lava's mobile devices in India," Lava International Chairman and Managing Director Hari Om Rai said.

India, one of the world's fastest growing markets for handsets, is witnessing a growing interest from vendors like Samsung, Lava, Micromax and others to increase their base in the country.

According to research firm IDC, India was the fastest growing smartphone market in the Asia Pacific region in July-September quarter of 2014.

The shipments grew 82% year-on-year to 23.3 million units in the third quarter of last year, while it was higher by 27% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, IDC said in a statement.

Samsung leads the smartphone market in India with 24% share, followed by Micromax (20%), Lava and Karbonn (8% each) and Motorola (5%) in the third quarter of 2014.

The total handset market (feature and smartphone) in India grew 9% to 72.5 million units in the said quarter, while it was higher by 15% q-o-q.

In the overall market, Samsung leads with 16% share, Micromax (14%), Nokia (11%), Lava (10%) and Karbonn (8%).