Micromax co-founder Rajesh Agarwal said the Indian smartphone maker will be making an investment of Rs 300 crore to set up three new manufacturing units in Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The strategy of Micromax is to enhance domestic production and reduce dependence on imports from China, PTI reported. The new smartphone manufacturing plants will be operational over the course of next year.
The company will be investing Rs 100 crore each in these three new facilities. Micromax, the second largest smartphone maker in India, has received 20 acres of land in Telangana and 25 acres of land in Rajasthan. Work in Tirupati will start soon.
The Indian smartphone maker will have a manufacturing capacity of about 4 million units per year.
Micromax aims to provide employment to some 3,500 people in each factory.
Micromax, which competes with Samsung and Apple for leadership, has a phone assembly unit in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand that produces about one million units. This unit accounts for about 30-35 percent of its requirement and the remaining are imported from China.
Handset makers such as Samsung Electronics and domestic players like Spice have phone assembly units in India. International players like Xiaomi, Gionee and Asus have announced assembly units in partnership with electronics major Foxconn in Andhra Pradesh in the recent past.
Micromax is betting on the rapid growth in the smartphone market in the country.
“We expect smartphones to maintain a double-digit growth over the next few years. 4G enabled devices are expected to be at the forefront, with the entire ecosystem preparing for this shift in the near future,” said Kiran Kumar, research manager at IDC India.
Samsung, the main rival of Micromax, posted 13.1 percent quarter-on-quarter growth in Q3 2015 over Q2 2015 — primarily driven by LTE based smartphones such as Galaxy Grand Prime 4G, Galaxy J and Galaxy A series.
IDC said Micromax retained the second position in Q3 2015 with 6.4 percent quarter-on-quarter growth. YU Phones contributed to the success of 4G phone business of Micromax.
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