vivo to pump in Rs 7,500 cr to ramp up mfg in India, aims to create 40K jobs in 10 yrs

Chinese smartphone maker vivo on Tuesday said it plans to invest an additional Rs 3,500 crore to expand its manufacturing capacity, taking its total planned outlay in India to Rs 7,500 crore over the next few years.

Previously, the company had announced an investment plan of Rs 4,000 crore in to ramp up manufacturing of its smartphones in India.

"We have been committed to the 'Make in India' right from the beginning and have been manufacturing here for some time. We have seen strong growth in our business in India. We are now looking at investing Rs 7,500 crore, up from Rs 4,000 crore that we had previously announced," vivo India Director Brand Strategy Nipun Marya told PTI.

He, however, declined to comment on the time period over which this investment would be made.

Marya explained that the scaling up of manufacturing would depend on the growth and demand in the market.

"The expansion of our manufacturing capacity will be done in phases. The first phase will be ready next month that will take our current capacity of 25 million units annually to 33.4 million, and create about 2,700 new job opportunities," he said.

vivo, which is among the top five smartphone companies in India, has already invested Rs 400 crore in manufacturing in India. Its facilities are located in Greater Noida.

"vivo will contribute not only in form of economic growth and technology, but also towards skilled labour and jobs for the vast talent pool of the nation. Overall, our aim is to create about 40,000 job opportunities over next 10 years," he said.

In December last year, vivo had said it acquired 169-acre land in the Yamuna Expressway region on the outskirts of the national capital and will invest Rs 4,000 crore over a period of four years.

India is one of the world's largest smartphone markets and growing steadily. Smartphone shipments in India stood at 36.9 million units in April-June 2019 quarter, registering an year-on-year growth of 9.9 per cent, according to research firm IDC.

Xiaomi led the smartphone tally with 28.3 per cent share of the shipment (10.4 million units), followed by Samsung 25.3 per cent (9.3 million units), vivo 15.1 per cent (5.6 million units), Oppo 9.7 per cent (3.6 million units) and Realme 7.7 per cent (2.8 million units) in the said quarter.