Celkon Impex Private Limited, a Hyderabad-based dual-SIM mobile handset manufacturer, is planning to establish an assembly plant in southern India by next year, involving an investment of close to Rs 100 crore.
“We have approached Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments. They are currently in the process of identifying 100 acre, which we have asked for. We intend to assemble 300,000 units of basic dual-SIM models per month from the proposed plant, which is expected to be operational early next year,” Y Guru, managing director of Celkon, told mediapersons here on Monday.
Celkon, which entered the seven million-unit per month Indian dual-SIM market in 2010 with seven models, at present has 20 stock keeping units (SKUs) in its portfolio. The company is also exploring opportunities to export its products to neighbouring countries from next year, Guru added.
Celkon executive director Murali Retineni said as part of the expansion plans, the company was entering the northern market from today, in the states of New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
“We will be entering the east and western regions from the first week of July,” Retineni said, adding the company had sold 1 million units and achieved a turnover of Rs 150 crore in the first year, and was aiming at selling 5 million units with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore this year, on the back of its pan-India presence with a reach across 7,000 retail outlets and the proposed new models.
Retineni said the company had recently introduced two models on the ‘King Movie’ platform, which enables to store 40 movies in a 2GB card. “We are offering 15 full-fledged pre-loaded movies, and audio and video songs in a single 2GB card with these models, which can be expanded to 40 movies,” he said.
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The company is working on C 555, a touch-screen PDA (personal digital assistant) phone with 3D interface and A1, a sub-Rs 6,000 phone powered by the Android 2.2 operating system, 3 megapixel camera and Google Apps Marketplace, at its research and development centre in Hyderabad.
“A digital tablet in the sub-Rs 10,000 category is also under R&D. While C 555 and the Android touch phone will be launched in the next couple of weeks, the digital tablet will take some more time to hit the market,” he said.