Flextronics’ first industrial park gets into manufacturing mode

Sufia Tippu
Sunday, 05 November 2006 08:09

IT Industry - Market

It was a bitter-sweet moment for the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party and widow of former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi – who were present at the launch of the first Flextronics industrial park in India.

At Sriperumbudur on the outskirts of the southern port city of Chennai, the very same venue where the 46-year-old was assassinated 15 years back, a world class telecom hub has emerged, Today, the latest in the line to set up a $200-million manufacturing facility was the Singapore-based Flextronics, a global leader in electronics manufacturing services.

Earlier, Nokia, Motorola, Foxconn and Dell also set up world class manufacturing units, the first of their kind in India, known more for its software prowess than manufacturing expertise.

“This is a fitting tribute for Rajiv Gandhi who envisioned a modern India and had spearheaded the technological revolution. His work was not completed but today, we are seeing the emergence of a world-class manufacturing hub coming up in the same place where he was killed,” Singh said at the inauguration of the 250-acre industrial park which has been set up with an investment of $200 million spread over 18 months.

Flextronics which offers complete design, engineering and manufacturing services to automotive, computing, consumer digital including mobile handsets, has six other industrial parks in Brazil, China, Hungary, Mexico and Poland.

Almost all the leading handset companies such as Sony Ericsson, Motorola and many others are its customers, as well as HP for industrial computing products, Casio and Microsoft for its consumer products.

Mike McNamara, CEO, Flextronics, said that the company would be rolling out a million mobile handsets a month for leading OEM vendors.

“Over the course of six years, we have become a leading EMS provider in the burgeoning India market and we intend to go on a long-term journey in the Indian market. India is going to become an anchor for our strategy - both for the local as well as for the global market,” McNamara said, adding that the company would be aggressively building its market share and industry leadership position in India.

The two buildings in the first phase covering over half a million sq ft area would employ about 4000 people. “In the first year of operations, we would be supplying to the Indian market and later to EU, Africa and the Middle East,” said Peter Tan, president and managing director, Asia, Flextronics.

In the second phase, the company would also manufacture components for base stations, A.Gururaj, India head of Flextronics added.

Meanwhile, among the other EMS players coming into the country Jabil Circuit, another acquired Celetronix, India-based manufacturer of electronic products to get a stronger foothold in the Indian EMS market while Elcoteq, the first EMS player to start operations in the country is set to act as a one-stop shop for world class product design.