<p><strong>Simar Singh</strong><br><br>Chinese technology startup, OnePlus, announced its intent to produce its smartphones in India on Monday (October 12). This will be done through contract manufacturing at Foxconn’s Rising Stars factory in the Sri City Integrated Business in City in Andhra Pradesh by the end of the year.<br><br>The collaboration was announced by OnePlus’ founder and CEO, Pete Lau and the man at the helm of the company’s India operations, GM Vikas Agarwal in Bengaluru.<br><br>“Producing smartphones in India is one of the most important decisions that we have made so far at OnePlus,” said Lau at the announcement, “India being one of our biggest markets worldwide, we are committed to a long-term sustainable growth path. This move will strengthen our presence and help us step up momentum in India.”<br><br>Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu welcomed the initiative and said that his government's dream was to “catapult Andhra Pradesh to become one of the hottest destinations for local manufacturing in India”, something that was “quickly becoming a reality” thanks to brands like OnePlus.<br><br>Agarwal said that local production would make their operations more efficient in terms of cost and working capital requirements adding that it would make the company’s products available for sale much faster.<br><br>OnePlus’ sophomore smartphone offering, OnePlus 2, saw a registration of 5 million people for invitations to purchase it. OnePlus follows a unique marketing strategy in which interested customers have to sign up to receive an invite to receive their new products, a process that can take months.<br><br>Talking about the same, Agarwal said, “We have been constrained by a few supply chain related challenges in meeting consumer demands. The local production will help to address this issue and better cater to the fast growing demands for OnePlus products in India.”<br><br>The 30,000 square ft. facility is expected to create direct employment of over 1000 full-time workers and will have the cumulative peak capacity of producing around 5 lakh units.<br><br>Earlier in July this year, Taiwanese gadget manufacturer Foxconn had kicked off production for Xiaomi and InTouch in the same Andhra plant, giving impetus to the Modi’s administration’s Make in India initiative.</p>
