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Acer to expand made-in-India portfolio into home appliances

Jingyue Hsiao, DIGITIMES Asia, Taipei 0

Credit: AFP

In addition to local production of computers, monitors, and servers, Acer said the company would expand after-sale services and foray into made-in-India home electronics as India has become the company's second-largest market after the US.

Harish Kohli, managing director at Acer India, told the Economic Times that the company plans to make and export appliances, such as water and air purifiers, with a new entity in India, AcerPure, expected to be registered in the coming weeks in India.

Kohli said that thanks to the partnership with Dixon Technologies, the company is expected to meet the incentive targets for the first year under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware 2.0, adding that besides local production, the company is exploring possible exports to India's neighboring countries.

After India announced the imposition of import management systems for computers, Acer ramped up its made-in-India production efforts for desktop computers. Furthermore, the company is expanding its production portfolio into more categories, such as smart large-sized monitors and servers.

DIGITIMES reported that Andrew Hou, the president of Acer's Pan Asia Pacific Operations, said that Dixon is making notebooks and desktops for Acer in India. Acer is outsourcing the manufacturing of smart large-size monitors to local suppliers and has registered Altos, adding that instead of the Semi Knock Down (SKD) model adopted in manufacturing in Indonesia, the company is sourcing components from overseas before assembling in India, the Completely Knock Down (CKD) model.

In early February, Nikkei Asia, citing Jason Chen, Acer chairman, reported that India had become Acer's second-largest market by shipments and revenue after the US, and the company plans to accelerate sales of consumer notebook computers. Furthermore, in addition to the partnership with Dixon, Acer is talking with Taiwan-based suppliers to increase local production in India. Chen said that Acer wants more models and more volumes made in India.

Kohli told the Economic Times that India is among the growth markets that saw revenue rise by nearly 20% year-on-year in 2023.