The new builders: From assembly lines to components

Much like his father before him, Sunil Vachani started out making television sets. Three decades ago, his operations were modest but Vachani soon decided he wanted to more. With Dixon Technologies he forayed into contract manufacturing assembling smart phones, washing machines and television sets for Motorola, Xiaomi, HP and Samsung. Last year, Dixon’s top line hit Rs 48,872 crore with 90% of the revenues coming in from smart phones. Now Vachani’s aiming for bigger things, he’s looking to manufacture components.

He believes achieving global competitiveness is nearly impossible if the country perpetually imports components. The camera modules and display modules businesses, Vachani estimates, would result in value addition of 35% in mobile phones.