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Salcomp, the Finnish manufacturer of chargers and adaptors for smartphones and other handheld devices, will more than double its Indian workforce to over 25,000 in the next 2-3 years, according to a senior company executive.
“Today, we have 12,000 people and have plans to go to 25,000 people in the next 2-3 years,” said Sasikumar Gendham, MD, Salcomp India.
Salcomp, a major supplier of chargers to Apple for its iPhones, acquired Nokia’s Sriperumbudur plant in Chennai, which has been closed since 2014 due to a tax dispute.
Drivers for growth
Speaking at the inaugural session of the 12th Source India - Electronics Supply Chain conference, organised by the Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) here on Monday, Gendham said 85 per cent of Salcom’s 12,000-strong Indian workforce are women and the company has so far exported over a billion chargers from the Chennai plant.
The company is also building a housing complex with entertainment and education for about 15,000 people in the State, he added.
The global electronics industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5 per cent and the key drivers for this growth will be the China plus one strategy adopted by companies, increasing government focus on renewable energy, penetration of electric vehicles and the growing demand for electronics due to 4G and 5G network availability, said Gendham.
“In the Indian context, the China plus one strategy is at its peak at the moment,” he said, adding that while China continues to be the world’s factory over the last two decades due to favorable manufacturing environment, business ecosystem and cost of labour, the whole supply chain is now looking at some alternatives.
Anywhere but China
Companies are focusing on the supply chain diversification through anywhere but China (ABC) strategy because “everyone knows that the whole world is depending on this one nation over the last two decades and it’s time to diversify and decluster ourselves from that,” he said.
He added that India’s electronics market is one of the fastest growing in the world. The total electronics market is valued about $91 billion in 2021 and is expected to be at least $300 billion by 2026. “Domestic production is approximately 75 per cent of this overall value and hopefully, it can reach $70 billion by 2026,” Gendham added.
While India has a big potential and huge market for both domestic and exports, the one area that needs focus is ‘localisation’ and increased value addition. “Otherwise, we would just be assemblers,” he said.
Gendham said the only thing that will differentiate the domestic electronics industry going forward is automation. “Electronics industry is all about scale and the industry is always under cost pressure, so automation is the only way to go forward.”
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