Videocon to make five lakh handsets for Coolpad India

NEW DELHI: Videocon Industries has bagged a contract to make five lakh handsets for Coolpad India, a subsidiary of China’s largest smartphone maker, in the first quarter of the next fiscal, in its first contract manufacturing deal.

The two companies while announcing the deal refused to share any financial details. An industry executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two will work on a revenue sharing model.

The devices would be rolled out of Videocon’s Aurangabad facility. The Mumbai-based consumer electronics to retail conglomerate is betting big on ODM (original design manufacturer) production in the consumer electronics space for domestic and multinational brands and is currently developing production facilities in various locations including Kolkata, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu.

“We see huge business potential in manufacturing in India and we are in talks with several device vendors including Chinese and Japan-based companies,” said Abhijit Kotnis, chief operating officer for manufacturing operations and global sourcing at Videocon Industries.

The company currently operates 17 manufacturing facilities in India, China, Poland, Italy and Mexico. Coolpad India CEO Syed Tajuddin said it plans to “take advantage of India manufacturing to serve other Asian countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh”.

The Chinese device maker is initially investing Rs 30 crore overall in India that includes R&D, design, manufacturing and marketing campaigns and the agreement with Videocon is an interim measure to meet consumer demand.

The company on Friday also launched fingerprint-enabled Coolpad Note 3 smartphone at a price of Rs 8,999 exclusively on ecommerce marketplace Amazon.in.