HMD Global to double revenue, step up manufacturing capacity in India: CEO

HMD Global, which designs and sells phones under the Nokia brand, said on Tuesday that it plans to step up manufacturing capacity and hopes to double revenue from the Indian market.

Speaking to PTI, HMD Global CEO Florian Seiche said India is among its top regions and "probably the single largest market" for the company.

"India is a cornerstone for our future growth. We are investing significantly in manufacturing, expanding our retail presence... We expect to double our revenue and manufacturing capacity this year. It (India) is a key market for both feature and smartphones," he added.

Seiche, however, declined to comment on the revenue details.

HMD has a partnership with Foxconn to manufacture its devices in Chennai.

Other leading markets for HMD include Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia and Mexico.

Once a dominant player in the Indian market, Nokia began to see a global downfall around 2012 due to its slow response to changing trends like dual SIM and touch screen smartphones. In 2017, Nokia returned to the market with HMD as the new owner of the brand and lined up 11 devices in 12 months.

The Indian market continues to be extremely competitive with the top 5 brands -- Xiaomi, Samsung, vivo, Oppo and Transsion -- accounting for 79 per cent share of the smartphone market in June 2018 quarter.

According to research firm IDC, smartphone shipments in India grew 20 per cent totalling 33.5 million units during the quarter. Feature phone market also remained resilient with shipments of 44 million units in June 2018 quarter with a growth of 29 per cent year-on-year.

HMD Global today also launched two new devices -- Nokia 6.1 Plus (Rs 15,999) and Nokia 5.1 Plus (pricing to be announced later) -- in the Indian market. These phones will be available later this month.