Vivo India, known for its economical phones, has proposed investing Rs 7,500 crore in the country and it is set to spend Rs 3,500 crore of that amount by end of this year. According to the firm’s India Impact Report 2022, it will start production at a new ‘state of the art’ manufacturing facility by early 2024 after regulatory clearance. The new facility, in a yet undisclosed location, will spread across 169 acres and will produce 120 million smartphones annually upon completion of all its phases.
In line with the government’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, Vivo said all its smartphones sold in the country are made indigenously. “100 per cent of our motherboard assembly is happening in India. Furthermore, Vivo procures 95 percent of its battery and 70 percent of its charger components locally,” Yogendra Sriramula, Head, Brand Strategy, vivo India, told ‘Business Standard’.
The company sells phones across India through 70,000 retail touchpoints and more than 650 exclusive stores. “The (Indian) smartphone market is valued at $35 billion. Of this, the offline retail market makes up a big chunk. For the last 13 consecutive quarters, vivo has been the biggest player in offline retail,” Sriramula said.
“Backed by technologically advanced and innovative offerings, we have won the hearts of proud owners of 100 million vivo smartphones, and have created a socio-economic impact on the lives of around 1.6 million Indians,” said Sriramula.
“During the pandemic, purchases were need-based. Now they are upgrade-based. Our primary focus at the moment is to keep a track of changing consumer needs,” Sriramula said. “We are planning for the long term. Ups and downs occur in the near term but we are committed to our future investments in India.
“We have approximately 5,000 patents for 5G inventions and made about 10,300 submissions to the 3GPP for developing technical specifications of 5G technology,” said Sriramula, adding, “vivo has been able to add more than 10 million users to over 100 million users owning a 5G smartphone.”