PTI
GOA, Mar 31: On the back of the country's burgeoning mobile handset market, Nokia on Sunday said it has reached production volume of 125 million in over two years of operations at its manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu.
To tap the potential of the Indian market the company has decided to further ramp up its production capacity and increase the headcount to over 13,000 at its manufacturing facility from the current level of 8,000, a Nokia official said.
We have reached production volume of 125 million mobile handsets in just over two years of operations at the factory in Sriperumbudur," Nokia India Operations Director Sachin Saxena said.
"Our decision to invest in local manufacturing has given us the opportunity to fuel the demand for the domestic and emerging markets while also allowing India to emerge as a global manufacturing hub, he added.
The company has already invested 210 million dollars in their manufacturing unit and would invest 75 million dollar in 2008 for additional ramp up at the plant.
With this, the total investment at the Nokia manufacturing plant and the Nokia Telecom Park reaches USD 285 million by December.
The company has termed the Indian plant as one of the best of nine facilities worldwide in terms cost and quality.
"Quality and cost wise, India is perhaps the best factory. Nokia is exporting Made in India cell phones to more than 50 countries," Nokia India Vice President and Managing Director D ShivaKumar said.
With annual turnover at 3.6 billion dollar, India contributed nearly seven per cent to Nokias total global revenue of 51 billion dollar in 2007, Shivakumar said.
Based on the strength of the Indian mobile market, which is adding 7 million new subscribers every month, Nokia saw its market share going up to 38 per cent in 2007 form 36 per cent in 2006 worldwide.
India has become second largest market for Nokia just after China and is in the race to become the top market in the near future.
The Nokia manufacturing plant has been in operation since January 2006 and with an initial investment of 150 million dollar. The plant plays an integral role in Nokias global production network for the emerging markets and is the ninth manufacturing facility of the company.
The company entered India 12 years ago and today it has three research and development (R&D) centres and a strong 1,10,000 points-of-sale covering the length and breadth of the country.
Nokia has an estimated 10 crore new mobile subscribers in India and the company has devised a strategy for its growth through a mix of new users, replacement users and service users.