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Flextronics plans to set up $500 M plant
By agencies
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Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 19:30 IST
NEW DELHI: India is catching the attention of global electronics majors. After Nokia’s decision to set up manufacturing facilities for its mobile phones, it’s now the turn of $17 billion Flextronics to close in on India for setting up huge manufacturing facilities for three lines of products — mobile phones, electronics infrastructure products and set-top boxes.
The production plans, which will touch a global scale in phases, is expected to involve an investment of about $500 million.
The worldÂ’s largest contract electronics manufacturerÂ’s ambitious plans include bringing in its global vendors too who will set up their manufacturing facility in the vicinity of their plant. The manufacturing plant is expected to be set up in a huge campus, for which the company is scouting for a location in South India.
Flextronics president (design and ODM services), Ash Bhardwaj said, “We will set up a major manufacturing facility in India for mobile phones, handhelds communications infrastructure products and set-top boxes. It could emerge as one of our biggest facilities over a period of time.”
The Singapore-based company was earlier reported to be looking at expansion outside China, but Malaysia was always believed to be its new hot destination. However, the company now plans to expand its manufacturing facilities in India. The electronics major plans to integrate its manufacturing facility with its current design center based in Bangalore.
Also on the cards is a shared service center in Chennai, which will employ 2,000 to 3,000 people by the end of next year. The shared services center will run finance, payroll and other similar services for internal use of Flextronics.
The world’s largest electronics manufacturer provides design, engineering and manufacturing services to companies such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nokia and Ericsson. Flextronics also runs a software business in India that came through the acquisition of four companies, including 69.7 percent stake in Hughes Software it acquired from Murdoch-owned DirecTV and three smaller companies — Futuresoft, Emused and Deccanet.