Country's youngest and the fast growing mobile phone manufacturer Micromax has a well laid down expansion plan towards new international markets.
Talking to The Pioneer, company's Business Director, Vikas Jain pointed out that they plan to expand its reach to new markets across Russia and South Africa.
“We are looking at many developed and developing economies like Russia and other CIS countries (common wealth of Independent States) (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine) and South African markets,” he said.
Having a fast growing market share in India as highlighted in International Data Corp's latest report, company currently has a market share of 22 per cent, he added, “Apart from India, we are amongst the top brands in Nepal, Sri lanka and Bangladesh”.
The company is not just focussing on increasing its footprint in other nations but also has plans to set up a manufacturing plant in the country. In the recent past, there were reports of the company planning to set up a manufacturing unit in the country.
Speaking on this for the first time, Jain said, “Yes, we are keen to set up our unit here and if all goes well then by the end of this year. Right now, we are importing our products from China.”
The plan to set up a manufacturing plant in the country came in the back drop of reducing company's import costs. The recent fluctuation of rupee has indeed dented the handset maker. “We have felt the pinch of currency weakness as we have increased the prices by 12 per cent in the last 90 days.”
Further discussing the company's view towards capacity expansion in their existing facilities, plans Jain said, “This business is not capex oriented but is more opex ( Operating expense) oriented and the company has enough cash to fund these operating expansions.”
“The Company has no debt on its balance sheet and is highly profitable,” Jain further added.
Telecom operator Aircel and mobile handsets manufacturer Micromax on Wednesday entered into a pan-India strategic partnership, under which both the companies will leverage each other's channel and retail networks, sales resources and together run an integrated device sales activation programme.
While the global mobile data traffic was growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 78 per cent since 2011 with the smartphones expected to contribute to 48per centto this by 2016, he said, the situation in India was even brighter and was poised to outperform the global data usage. The India mobile data traffic is growing at a CAGR of 148 per cent and the smartphone contribution is expected to reach 51per cent by 2016.