HP’s shipments grew by 58.7% per cent YoY in CY2021. While the company continues to grow in both the commercial and consumer segment, until now, the majority of HP’s hardware was imported in the country. The American multinational intends to change this with its “Made in India, for India” plans.
The company has been manufacturing commercial desktops in India for a long time but it has now commenced local manufacturing of laptops in the country.
Laptops including HP’s EliteBooks, ProBooks and HP G8 series notebooks are being made at the Flex facility in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
“We were among the first brands to jump on the Make in India bandwagon in 2007. And we were doing a limited portfolio with limited value addition, as we were importing components and assembling them at a period where value additions which were in the range of seven to eight per cent,” Ketan Patel, Managing Director, HP India Market said.
“But what we’ve done in this recent manufacturing upgrade with Flex, is making sure we expanded the portfolio from a single desktop form factor to several desktop form factors, small form factor mini all-in-one PCs, displays, and, of course, laptops,” he added.
In addition to expanding the product categories being manufactured in India, HP, like many other smartphone OEMs, is going beyond just assembly in India to increasing local value addition.
“We are now adding the percentage of value addition, so it is no longer just about assembly. We are also doing a local procurement of subcomponents out of India and then adding them to our Make in India portfolio, making the value of the product created out of India better than the 7% level which we had in the past. And various products from our side now have a valuation ranging from 10% to 50%. Thus, various products at various phases,” explains Patel.
According to a recent report by IDC, HP will have a market share of 32.9 percent in the commercial and 30 percent in the consumer segments in India in 2021. Strong demand and consistent supply aided the brand in achieving significant growth in both segments.