Lava to invest Rs 1,200 cr; hire 7k people in 2015

NEW DELHI: LAVA International, a home-grown mobile handset company, is planning a phased-wise investment of Rs 1,200 crore for manufacturing and will hire 7,000 people in the current year to strengthen its business.

Pursuing its plans to manufacture products in India in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the company has commissioned its assembly line in North India which will be scaled up in this financial year.

The company said that it crossed USD 1 billion revenue mark in FY 14- 15, registering a growth of over 100% over FY 13-14.

The company stated that it sold more than 26 million handsets and a recorded group sales of Rs 70 billion in FY 14- 15. The growth has been fueled by a three-fold increase in the smartphone segment in comparison to FY 13-14 with significant contribution coming from international markets.

Lava International became the second player amongst the Indian brands in overall handsets as well as in smartphones in FY14-15, according to Cybex Exim Solutions, an export import trade data research company.

The company is expanding in global markets as well. In FY 14-15, LAVA was present in eight markets including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Middle East, Nepal, Thailand and will now start catering to markets like Indonesia & Mexico also. The brand is amongst the top three smartphone players in Thailand.

Hari Om Rai, Chairman and Managing Director, LAVA International, said, “LAVA International has registered more than 100% growth over last year, thus over-achieving the targeted revenue of USD 1 billion. The credit for this stupendous success goes out to all stakeholders who have been a part of this journey including employees, customers, shareholders and commercial partners."