Acer to manufacture laptops in India at Dixon Technologies’ Noida facility

In a fresh boost to PC manufacturing in India, Taiwanese PC brand Acer announced that it going to manufacture laptops in the country in partnership with Dixon Technologies. The laptops will be manufactured at Dixon’s Noida factory, which will produce up to 500,000 Acer laptops annually.

Acer said it will provide Dixon with the know-how and processes for manufacturing high tech laptops.

Acer currently manufactures desktops, All-in-One PCs and tablets in its Puducherry facility. "Acer will manufacture multiple laptops in value to mainstream segments, including the education segment, with Acer global manufacturing practices and guidance," said Harish Kohli, President and Managing Director, Acer India, in a statement. 

Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India said the company already manufactures Desktops, all-in-one PCs and tablets in India. "With these new initiatives, we can produce our complete PC product range," he added.  

Acer said the new manufacturing unit will create new employment opportunities for the country's youth and help in the development of ancillary electronic industries with the introduction of global manufacturing standards in India. 

With an 8.6% PC market share and 381,000 unit shipments in the September quarter of CY 2021, Acer is the fourth leading PC brand in India after HP, Dell and Lenovo, as per International Data Corporation (IDC).

Though popular among individual buyers, 60% of Acer’s revenue in India comes from the commercial segment, particularly government projects.

Dixon Technologies is a homegrown contract manufacturer that makes smartphones, TVs, washing machines, light bulbs and CCTV cameras. Its key customers are Motorola, Philips, Syska, Samsung, Panasonic. This is their first laptop manufacturing unit.

Dixon was one of the first contract manufacturers to get approval under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware manufacturing in India. After the success of the PLI scheme for smartphone manufacturing in 2020, the Government of India approved a Rs 7,325-crore PLI scheme for laptops, tablets, all-in-ones and servers in February 2021. The scheme is for the manufacturing of laptops and tablets with an invoice value of Rs 30,000 and over Rs 15,000, respectively. 

“Acer India is the leading PC brand in India and one of the globally leading companies. We are excited to enter this category and manufacture laptops in India," added Sunil Vachani, Executive Chairman, Dixon Technologies.

Demand for laptops in India has remained strong even with the opening of offices and return to colleges and work. 

According to IDC, India shipped 4.3 million PC units including laptops, desktops and workstations at 30% year-on-year (YoY) growth  in the September quarter of CY 2021.