Over the last decade, India has gone from importing nearly all its smartphones to turning smartphones into its fourth biggest export, but it could do an encore with laptops.
Noida-based contract manufacturing company Dixon has partnered with Taiwanese electronics company Asus to manufacture laptops in India. The laptops will be manufactured under the central government’s PLI 2.0 scheme, and the manufacturing facility will be located in Chennai. Dixon has already partnered with Lenovo, Acer and HP to manufacture laptops in India.
Dixon Technologies will manufacture notebooks for Asus under the Production-linked incentive 2.0 scheme. Asus joins HP, Lenovo, and Acer in partnering with Dixon for local laptop production. The agreement is pending definitive agreements and production will occur at a new facility in Chennai with a capacity of 2 million laptops annually.
“We are delighted and encouraged by the trust they have bestowed on Dixon for this collaboration,’ said Dixon’s Vice Chairman and MD Atul Lall. “Asus has established a strong and trusted foothold worldwide, thanks to its advanced technology and we see them as our ideal long-term strategic partner who shares our core values,” he added. The agreement is subject to signing definitive agreements.
Dixon’s subsidiary Padget Electronics will be setting up Acer’s manufacturing facility. Asus is best known for its high-end gaming laptops. Just last week, HP had partnered with Padget Electronics to make laptops in Tamil Nadu.
Acer isn’t the only global giant that Dixon has partnered with to make electronics in India. Dixon has 23 manufacturing plants across India, and is a contract manufacturer for companies including Samsung, Xiaomi, Panasonic and Philips. It had recently partnered with Google to make the Pixel phones in India.
Dixon has spent plenty of time honing its skills in the electronics manufacturing space. The company was founded in 1993 by Sunil Vachani and is headquartered in Noida. Dixon had started off manufacturing colour TVs, and by 2008 was also manufacturing lighting blubs. In 2010, the company had begun manufacturing LED TVs. Over the years, Dixon has expanded its operations to various sub-segments of electronics, including consumer durables, home appliances, lighting, mobile phones, security devices, set top boxes, wearables and medical equipment. The company has manufacturing facilities located in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh, along with R&D centers in India and China. Last year, it recorded revenue of Rs. 17,691 crore, and employed 2,840 people.
And India’s electronics manufacturing has been coming into its own in recent years. Buoyed by the government’s PLI schemes, smartphones have gone past gasoline to become India’s fourth largest export, and the sector now employs more than 10 lakh people. And with some of the biggest global names queuing up to set up manufacturing units in India, the growth in the space might just be getting started.