Vivo to enhance investment to Rs 7,500 crore for smartphone manufacturing

Vivo plans to invest an additional Rs 3,500 crore to expand its smartphone manufacturing capacity in India.
Vivo India smartphone manufacturingPreviously, the company announced an investment plan of Rs 4,000 crore to enhance its facility for phone manufacturing in India, PTI reported.

“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,” Vivo India Director Brand Strategy Nipun Marya said.

The scaling up of smartphone manufacturing in India would depend on the growth and demand in the market.

The company will expand its manufacturing capacity 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.

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

Vivo will contribute in form of economic growth, technology and jobs for the vast talent pool of the nation. “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.

Smartphone shipments in India reached 36.9 million units in the April-June quarter of 2019, registering 9.9 percent growth, according to research firm IDC.

Xiaomi is the #1 smartphone maker with 28.3 percent share with 10.4 million units, followed by Samsung 25.3 percent with 9.3 million units, Vivo 15.1 percent with 5.6 million units, Oppo 9.7 percent with 3.6 million units and Realme 7.7 percent with 2.8 million units in the second quarter.

Canalys Analyst Shengtao Jin recently said: “Vivo’s current trajectory would see it displace Samsung by the end of 2019. However, Samsung has now completed a disruptive portfolio refresh, which has positioned it to fight harder for share with tight margins.”

Vivo focuses on the market for smartphones priced in the range of INR 10,000 to INR 15,000. Its top shipping smartphones during the second quarter were the Vivo Y17 and the Vivo Y91, which shipped over 1.5 million units in Q2 2019.