China's Vivo expands mobile production capacity in India to 33.4 mn/year

Smartphone maker Vivo India on Wednesday announced expansion of mobile manufacturing facility to 33.4 million units per annum and increased headcount to close to 10,000 people.

The company is also planning to start the next phase of mobile manufacturing expansion from mid-2020 under which it plans to increase headcount by another 5,000 persons but incremental production capacity will depend on market demand prevailing at that time, Vivo India Director for Brand Strategy Nipun Marya told reporters here.

"We had 25 million units per annum capacity earlier which was running at full capacity. Recent industry number shows that overall market share of Vivo has gone up by 5 per cent. There was immediate need to expand manufacturing facility. This is the first step of expansion where we have added 8.4 million incremental capacity," Marya said.

According to the latest Counterpoint Q3, 2019 report, Vivo reached its highest-ever market share of 17 per cent in the Indian smartphone market driven by performance of its mid-segment series (Vivo S1 and Y17) and increased focus towards the online segment with its recently launched devices U10, Z1X and Z1Pro.

"The facility we have here is only for Vivo smartphones. The expansion is part of our commitment to invest Rs 7,500 crore as part of Make In India," Marya said.

He said the company earlier employed over 7,500 persons in its manufacturing facility and has added additional 2,000 persons under the phase-I expansion.