India’s Dixon Eyes Growth Beyond Smartphones to Add Global Clout

Submission Statement: Dixon Technologies India Ltd. is targeting growth beyond assembling smartphones, its strong suit, to challenge global electronics-making leaders and propel the company to its next phase of expansion

The contract manufacturer is seeking higher margins by making electronics components like camera modules, while deepening its smartphone and laptop production. The company, which currently ranks outside the top 10 in an industry dominated by the likes of Taiwan’s Foxconn, wants to be among the five biggest in the world within a decade.

“The vision is very clear,” said Vachani, 57, also the company’s founder. “We need to be in the top ten EMS global rankings in the next five years and the top five in the next 10 years,” he said, referring to electronics manufacturing services.

Vachani started Dixon with borrowed money in a rented shed outside of New Delhi three decades ago. Today, Dixon makes products including smartphones, washing machines and television sets for brands such as Motorola, Xiaomi, HP and Samsung. That’s earned it the moniker of India’s Foxconn, a reference to the Taiwanese giant also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

Dixon’s now steadily making efforts to move to high-margin products such as servers and even defense manufacturing. It has tied up with a Taiwanese firm to make optical gear used in data centers, and will bolster its IT hardware manufacturing as it opens a second plant late November.