LeEco, previously Letv, is not an unknown Chinese brand in India anymore, with an ideology that has garnered praises from the common man. Within months of its entry, the company expanded to 300 towns, which is an impressive feat and something for other manufacturers to ponder upon.
To strengthen its hold in India, LeEco is planning to set up manufacturing units in India along with a research and development centres which will provide support to its expansion programs across the world. India is a land of untapped opportunity for foreign manufacturers considering the perks provided by Narendra Modi under the Make in India Campaign.
LeEco is also pushing to open its own retail stores in India, something which Apple and Xiaomi want to accomplish as well. This will pave way for LeEco to introduce its whole Le Ecosystem, something the founders are very proud of, which provides technology solutions in nearly every space.
Liu Hong, Vice Chairman and Co-Founder – LeEco, told IANS, “We have already applied for the single-brand retail licence with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The ministry for communications and information technology has given us options like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Raipur’s electronic cluster, Bhopal and Bhilwada (Rajasthan) to set up our manufacturing base. We will evaluate all the options before finalising our manufacturing location.”
LeEco’s smartphones available in India, Le 1S and Le Max, have been in huge demand since the very beginning, with 1S running out of stock in flash sales within 5 seconds. Such huge demand gave confidence to LeEco to introduce other smartphones and products to Indians who want premium quality in inexpensive form.
LeEco’s plan to open stores and R&D centres
The company wishes to open 8 to 10 LeEco stores along with 500 franchise stores which makes the density of such stores very good in large cities and towns. To give you perspective, Samsung has nearly 3000-4000 franchise stores in the country, including small smartphone cafes, which improves its presence in cities.
The stores will require an initial investment of Rs. 50 Crores and the Chinese technology company is eyeing Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru to open these retail stores.
These stores will have its complete range of Super TVs, Bluetooth devices, Virtual Reality headsets(3D helmet) and powerbanks.
An R&D centre will be first opened in the tech hub of the country, Bangalore. India produces a lot of talent every year and LeEco wants to utilize that to create more innovations across the globe, not just India.
India is now on the way China has already been and will be leading the smartphone market in the near future. The Indian consumers are demanding high-quality phones at reasonable price. We acknowledge this and see a great potential of manufacturing here,” Lui Hong commented on the R&D centre in India.
This is going to create jobs in the silicon valley of India and also localise production for the company. In turn its products could get cheaper and more India-centric to please the demands from an Indian technology user. We might also get to see the electric car LeEco has designed soon if the Government joins hands with them.
Other technology companies should watch out for LeEco because these three high-impact initiatives will improve the presence of the company in India in a very short span of time.
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