Salcomp to kick-start ops from former Nokia factory in Tamil Nadu

Once a symbol of India’s economic success story, the Nokia factory in Sriperumbudur, 50 km from here, will come alive by the end of this month after being defunct for six years.

Salcomp, the Finnish electronics equipment manufacturer that bought the plant last year for Rs 215 crore, will launch operations in the “next few days,” in yet another boost to the ambitious ‘Make in India’ programme.

Nokia was the first mobile phone manufacturer to step onto the Indian soil to set up its unit way back in 2006. The plant was once India’s pride as it was one of the largest manufacturing units in the world producing one crore mobile phones a year and had employed 30,000 people directly and indirectly.

The sprawling Nokia plant was left out of the Microsoft-Nokia deal when the former acquired the latter due to a tax dispute between the Finnish mobile maker and the Indian Government. The plant closed down in November 2014 and efforts to sell the factory began after the Rs 21,000-crore tax dispute was resolved in 2018.

“The facility shall commence commercial operations within October,” Sasikumar Gendham, Managing Director, Salcomp India, told DH. With necessary permissions and licences already obtained, the plant will kick start production in the next few days.

Chargers and accessories

The new facility will manufacture chargers and other electronic devices, and components that go into chargers, phones, and accessories, Gendham said, adding that most of them would be exported to other countries.

Salcomp, which has been operating out of the Nokia Telecom SEZ in Sriperumbudur since 2007, has invested Rs 1,800 crore in expanding its production capacity, including at the new facility it had bought, since 2019.

“Investments are ongoing as planned in Nokia as well as other facilities that we have within the same campus,” Gendham said, adding that the has been able to increase its workforce at its plants in Sriperumbudur.

Tamil Nadu Government officials said the new facility by Salcomp is expected to create 10,000 jobs.

Salcomp launching operations at the Nokia factory will come as a boost to Tamil Nadu which is making a concerted effort to emerge as the electronics manufacturing hub of the country, trying to attract companies that may move out of China due to Covid-19 scare.

The move by Salcomp also comes close on the heels of Foxconn, one of the largest suppliers of Apple Inc, beginning to assemble high-end iPhones from its Sriperumbudur plant. Though Salcomp is one of the largest suppliers of chargers to Apple Inc, the company refused to divulge whether components for the California-based firm will also be manufactured at the new plant.

With the purchase of the Nokia plant, Salcomp will be occupying over 50% of the Nokia Telecom SEZ which is spread over ten lakh square feet.

Immediately after buying the Nokia plant, Salcomp also acquired Lite-On Mobile’s unit.

Salcomp launched operations at the SEZ in 2007 when it began supplying components to Nokia and other mobile manufacturers. Besides one plant in Noida, Salcomp has four plants in Sriperumbudur, including the Nokia factory that has been acquired.

After India and Finland resolved the tax dispute in 2018 after four years of negotiations, the Tamil Nadu government approached several electronic equipment manufacturers including Foxconn to buy the factory. However, Salcomp bought the factory in November 2019 and the deal was announced by Union Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

UPA-I government, especially the then Union Minister for IT & Communications Dayanidhi Maran, was instrumental in bringing Nokia to Tamil Nadu even as it was ruled by AIADMK’s J Jayalalithaa. The Finnish company signed an MoU with the state government in 2005 and launched operations in 2006.

At its peak, Nokia manufactured one crore phones a year and used the Sriperumbudur plant to export the handsets to markets like Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.