Karbonn aiming for more than Rs 4,000 crore turnover in 2013-14

NEW DELHI: Betting big on its smartphone portfolio, domestic handset maker Karbonn is aiming for a turnover between Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore by the end of current financial year.

"Our target is between Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore in 2013-14 and if you see our past, our growth year on year is almost double. The way we are growing and the way market is growing, we see an exponential growth in smartphones," Karbonn Managing Director Pardeep Jain told PTI.

The company touched revenues of Rs 2,400 crore last financial year.

Jain said looking at the growth potential, the company will be aiming for sales between Rs 8,000 crore-Rs 9,000 crore by 2014-15.

The handset maker, which currently assembles the devices at China, is also planning to start assembling of the phones in India by early next year.

"We will start assembling of phones at our Chennai facility by January or February next year, which will employ more than 250 people," Jain said.

He said presently Karbonn is doing all the mechanical design, software, R&D in India and the manufacturing of the phones is done in China through contract manufacturers such as foxconn.

The company is spending 8-9 per cent of its total revenue on research and development activities.

Asked if the company is looking to start manufacturing in India also, Jain said the company would love to do so but for that there should be an ecosystem in place.

"Every Indian company wants to start their own manufacturing in India...but for that government should come forward and give some kind of incentives," Jain said

He added for manufacturing, there should be an entire ecosystem for production and for that there should be clear policies on what work the state government will do and what the Centre will do.

He, however, appreciated the policies notified by the Centre to promote domestic manufacturing of electronics.

"We appreciate the kind of policies the government has notified," he added.

Under the National Policy on Electronics, government has announced a slew of benefits which include up to Rs 10,000 crore sops to the industry over the next five years for promoting production of electronics products and components.

In a bid to market its smartphones, the company has earmarked Rs 250 crore as the marketing budget for 2013-14. It aims to monthly sales of 1 million for its smartphones by December 2013.