Finland’s Salcomp, which is also an Apple iPhone charger manufacturer, is looking to more than double its headcount in India to nearly 25,000 over the next 2-3 years, the media has reported. According to a company executive, the whole supply chain is looking for an alternative outside of China, said a report by news agency Reuters.
“China Plus One strategy is at its peak at this moment … The whole supply chain is now kind of looking at an alternative. And India is poised to be one of the best alternatives,” Sasikumar Gendham, Managing Director, Salcomp Manufacturing India, was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.
“It’s time to really diversify and decluster supply chain beyond China,” Gendham added.
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Salo, Finland-headquartered Salcomp, which currently employs about 12,000 people in Chennai with 85 per cent of them being women, had reached an agreement in 2019 to take over a facility, formerly owned by Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia, in the southern city of Chennai and started operations in 2020.
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This development comes within a month of Jabil, an Apple manufacturer starting to locally manufacture components for AirPods in the country. Jabil is also shipping plastic bodies or enclosures for Apple AirPods to China and Vietnam, news agency Bloomberg reported last month.There have been rumours that Apple may be readying a budget AirPods TWS and a new AirPods Max for release in the second half (H2) of 2024. The new AirPods are likely to cost $99, which roughly translates into Rs 8,000 and will be around Rs 6,000 cheaper than the lowest-costing AirPods model in India that retails at Rs 14,900.
Apple has been diversifying its supply chain to India over the past few months. To recall, in October last year, Apple asked its contract manufacturers to shift some of its AirPods and Beats production to India for the first time ever.