BackChina’s Leagoo forays into India with plans to invest $200 million
The company targets to generate turnover of ₹200 crore by the financial year ending 2019The Indian smartphone market has seen a plethora of Chinese smartphone companies coming in due to Xiaomi Corp’s success
PremiumMUMBAI : Chinese smartphone maker Leagoo, entered India heating up the already over-crowded smartphone market. Leagoo plans to invest $200 million to set up manufacturing unit in India, the company said in a press conference on Friday.
The smartphone maker will operate in the affordability segment with three models— M12, priced at ₹6,850, M13, which retails for ₹9,199, and S11for ₹12,199. These phones, which have dual back camera, front camera, and Android 9.0 processor, will be available in 20,000 retail stores across the country.
“India has a huge population, which makes it a very interesting market. We have a big manufacturing unit in China and we are very confident about making our space in India," Kevin Liu, chief operating officer, Leagoo, told Mint in an interview.
The company targets to generate turnover of ₹200 crore by the financial year ending 2019.
“There are is still a major chunk of population who are using feature phone and second-hand phones. We want to reach to that market," said Raza Anees, general manager (sales and marketing) at Innovative Ideals and Services Ltd.
Currently, the company imports from their Chinese plant that can manufacture about 50,000 smartphones per day, claims Anees. "Since the quantity produced is high, we will be able to maintain our affordable price points without cutting down on the features of our phones," he added. The Mumbai-based company is Leagoo's distributor.
The 10-year-old smartphone maker has also been present in the European market, apart from China. The company has a five year brand endorsement deal with Tottenham Hotspur F.C., which it plans to leverage to attract the Indian football fanatics. Tottenham is on the third spot among the English Premier League teams.
The company is also in talks with online marketplaces, including Amazon Inc.’s domestic arm and Flipkart, for selling online.
The Indian smartphone market has seen a plethora of Chinese smartphone companies coming in due to Xiaomi Corp’s success. The company, which entered in India in July 2014, initially used sell its products through online marketplaces. Today it targets to get half of its revenue share from offline channels. The company currently has about 1,500 stores and targets to sell products through a total of 10,000 retail touch-points by this year end, according to Mint.
Seeing this success brands including Vivo, Oppo, One Plus and Real Me also forayed into India killing the Indian smartphones makers like Micromax and Lava. Success of these Chinese companies is giving tough competition to former market leader Samsung. To keep up with heating competition Samsung did a major revamp in its strategy and launched M-series and A-series, which targets the younger population.
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