Amber expects to manufacture up to 15 mn units for Oppo India from FY29

Homegrown Amber Group expects to ramp up production of Oppo-branded smartphones in a phased manner, commencing with 8 million units from the fiscal year 2028, representing 20% of the Chinese smartphone maker’s India volumes.

Amber, which has predominantly been an air conditioner (AC) manufacturer, expects the manufacturing volumes to reach 15 million units by the second year, or FY29.

“We expect trial production to commence in Q4 of FY27 with commercial production to start by Q1 of FY28. On the scale side, we expect to begin with around 8 million units in year one, followed by a calibrated phase-wise ramp-up,” Jasbir Singh, executive chairman and CEO & whole-time director, Amber Enterprises India, said during an analyst call on Saturday.

“If everything goes as scheduled, we expect to touch the volumes of around 13 to 15 million in the second year of operations,” Singh added.

Last week, Amber entered into a partnership with Oppo India to manufacture smartphones under the Oppo, Realme, and premium OnePlus brands. The Gurugram-headquartered electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firm had said this will “lead to the adoption of a new line of business in the Amber Group”.

In terms of value addition, Singh said Amber will initially undertake assembly and surface mount technology (SMT) operations, and will progressively deepen its presence into components such as high-density interconnect printed circuit boards (PCBs) and then gradually increase local value addition over the next five years.

“…the business is structurally low on working capital intensity and asset-light in character, both attributes that are conducive to healthy and improving returns on capital employed,” Singh said.

Amber will sub-lease an existing facility from Oppo India, which will not require a Press Note 3 approval.

The crucial Press Note 3 requirement has tightened the noose on Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI), and has reportedly been holding Dixon Technologies’ joint venture (JV) with Chinese Vivo.

Amber said there will be a minimum capital expenditure (capex) of around ₹50 crore for setting up basic assembly and SMT.

The EMS company aims to achieve a local value addition of 35-40% in the next five to six years, compared to the prevalent industry benchmark of 10-12%, said Singh. “We will start with assembly and SMT in year two…when our HDI plant will be ready. That is our first foray,” he added.

Oppo was among the only vendors whose shipments grew positively, at 22% year-on-year, in Q1 2026 in the India smartphone market, as per the International Data Corporation (IDC). The Chinese brand ranked third with a 15.3% market share (by volume) during the January-March quarter of this year.

Counterpoint Research had separately said that Oppo, excluding OnePlus, retained its third position in Q1 2026 with a 14% share. “It registered an 8% annual growth to become the fastest-growing brand among the top five,” it had said.

Counterpoint had attributed Oppo’s growth to a strong performance in the budget segment, led by the A- and K-series, while its mid-premium Reno series also witnessed healthy market traction, with further contribution from expanded product portfolio.

Amber Group’s revenue from operations for FY26 was ₹12,186 crores. Oppo Mobiles India’s revenue from operations for FY25 was ₹31, 981 crores, as per a regulatory filing last week.