TCL to set up manufacturing plant in Pune

SNIGDHA KARJATKAR

MUMBAI

March 8, 2007

TCL India Holdings will soon have its own manufacturing facility for IT
products at Pune in India by the end of April, 2007. it will manufacture
desktops, laptops and TFT monitors at this unit.

The reason TCL decided to have its own manufacturing unit in India is to cut
down on the shipment time from China. Said Aktar Khan, Senior Manager-IT of TCL
India Holdings, “We have our manufacturing units in China from where goods for
Indian orders were shipped. On an average, it took almost 45 days for the
products to reach India, which is a very long time.” Also, during this transit
time, there were price revisions, which made it difficult for the sales staff to
execute orders. “Now with a manufacturing plant in India, the turnaround time
will be reduced drastically and we can adjust production to price changes as
well.”

Products manufactured at the Pune plant will adhere to the cycles, processes
and tests as per the standards of TCL China. The first year, the output is
expected to be around 4,000 desktops and laptops apart from 40,000 TFT monitors.
Over time this production will be ramped up depending on business demands.

Interestingly, TCL Holdings India has tied up with Pune-based DSK Infotech
and will float a new company under the name of DSK Worldman Computers. This
company will be responsible for distributing and selling TCL products across
India. The capital investment of this venture is approximately Rs 5 crore. “Besides
this, we are planning to expand our base in the upper country market in India
and hope to have offices in 26 cities,” informed Khan.