Wipro scans Uttarakhand, HP for second PC plant

BANGALORE: Wipro plans to set up its second computer and server manufacturing facility in north India with an initial capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum. The company, which is eyeing tax-friendly destinations such as Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, is looking at finalising the location in less than two months.

The company’s capacity expansion plan stems from 50% year-on-year growth in shipments in fiscal 2006-07 and the overall buoyancy in the PC market in India which is growing at about 20%. Wipro vice-president—personal computing division Ashutosh Vaidya told ET: “We will soon run out of capacity in our Pondicherry facility.”

Wipro’s existing facility in Puducherry, a location that enjoys tax incentives too, is based on a 10-acre land area and has a total capacity of manufacturing 2.5 lakh pieces per annum.

The company, more widely known as an IT services major, sold 1.5 lakh pieces in 2006-07, registering a 50% growth. It is understood that Wipro’s second plant will be a modular facility which offers tremendous scope of scaling up capacities to up to 1 million pieces per annum in the long term.

The personal computing division’s top customers range from HDFC Bank, Reliance to Assam government to Rajasthan treasury to its own group companies. It has sold up to 30,000 pieces within the group’s various divisions.

According to analysts tracking the IT sector, the company may be looking at options such as contract manufacturing, given its huge capacity expansion plan. Investment figures on Wipro’s capacity expansion plans are not known yet. Dell, which sold 50,000 desktops in Q1 in India, has committed $60 million investment in its facility in Sriperumbudur in Chennai. Dell will spend $30 million in the first five years.

According to Gartner principal analyst (computing) Diptarup Chakraborti, the total PC shipments for calendar year 2006 was 7.59 million. In the first six months of 2007, the notebook market has grown 74% and desktops have grown 3.4% compared to the same period in 2006. Wipro has sold 73,900 desktops and 4,044 notebooks in the January-June period, 2007.

The company’s personal computing division, which is part of Wipro Infotech, essentially caters to the enterprise segment and has negligible presence in the home segment unlike other PC rivals like HP, HCL, Acer, Lenovo and Dell.
Mr Vaidya said that the company will continue with its strategy of pushing sales in the enterprise segment. The company’s model operates on offering project management services to enterprises. It has initiated product and service innovations to cater to the business segment. For instance, it has launched Protos range of desktops which its claims consumes up to 25% less power compared to a conventional desktop or the Supernova which is a cluster based supercomputer.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Hardware/Wipro_scans_Uttarakhand_HP_for_second_PC_plant/articleshow/2375160.cms