Endefo’s India expansion harps on local manufacturing in line with shift away from China

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Endefo, an electronics brand under the Ashtel Group of Companies, is looking to amplify its footprint beyond southern India to capture all corners of the country and eventually be a strong player in the government’s Make in India initiative. Aneef Tas, CEO of Endefo, told ET Online’s Gourab Das in an exclusive interaction that the company’s planned Rs 200 crore investment in India will go into ramping up R&D and product development in the country now, as it seeks to not only manufacture everything here for local consumption but also export products to the world. Tas also sheds light on product launches, pricing and marketing strategies.

Edited excerpts:Endefo is going to invest Rs 200 crore in India. However, how do you plan to allocate that money?Aneef Tas: After successfully expanding in GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, we now have ambitious plans for the Indian market. The first thing is that most of the goods in India are coming from-different countries.

But, our major focus is to manufacture everything in India and be part of the Make in India concept. Also, many heads of global companies abroad are Indians. So, we have the plan to develop the R&D centres in India to benefit from the decision makers in India as well as employ the talent pool of the country.

The R&D facilities and related amenities are what our investment will be mostly targeted for. There is a massive requirement for high-quality products in India. Endefo will thus look to introduce the quality products to the Indian market from the R&D centres built here and with manufacturing happening entirely in India.

We have R&D facilities in south India, but now we are moving north. Once this is done, we will associate with factories in India. We