Maxx Moblink looks to maintain edge in feature phone sales

Low-cost mobile phone manufacturer Maxx Moblink Private Ltd today said it had set a target of 18-million phone sales for the financial year 2015-16.  The envisaged target means a near four-fold jump from the 5-million mobile phone sales by the end of the current fiscal.

For this, Maxx is launching 40 new models in both feature and smartphone segments and would set up 100 exclusive smartcare centres (service points) across the country during that period.

“We are optimistic about feature phones sales as most of the existing players are moving out of it to catch up the smartphone curve, therefore leaving a gap, which we are rightly capturing,” said Ajjay Agarwal, chairman and managing director of Maxx Moblink.

Presently, the ratio of feature phones to smartphone sales for the company stands at 80:20, with a bag of 25 feature phone models and 15 smartphones.

“We had clocked Rs 660 crore turnover in the last fiscal and expect it to be Rs 1,500 crore by 2015-16,” he said.

To a question on its plans to build local manufacturing, Agarwal said the company would begin producing mobiles from its Haridwar plant set up in 2006 that currently makes mobile accessories for it.

“The infrastructure is ready and from this April, we would begin manufacturing from the Haridwar plant,” he said. The plant has a capacity to roll out 100,000 units a day, he said.

Things were looking bright for the growth of supply chain management (SCM) ecosystem in mobile devices manufacturing in the country. “In three-five years from now, we expect India to reach a stage where China, Taiwan and Korea are placed in the mobile devices SCM,” Agarwal said.

According to him, manufacturing had traditionally been low-cost in China due to active state support in establishing huge factories and low-cost workforce.

The company had received Rs 90 crore private equity funding from Singapore-based Star Asia Holding in 2010.