Early last December, Dixon Technologies teamed up with Vivo India, the Indian subsidiary of Chinese mobile phone company, to set up a joint venture. The proposed JV will manufacture electronic devices, including smartphones. Vivo will join Dixon’s long list of esteemed associates, like Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Realme and many more top global smartphone-makers. Vivo will, of course, move a notch higher than Dixon’s other associate companies to become its JV partner.

For the past over three decades, Dixon has embarked on quite a successful journey that was planned by its Chairman Sunil Vachani way back in 1993. Freshly back from London after graduating in business administration from American College, London, young Sunil confided in his father, Sundar Vachani, his plan to set up a business to manufacture electronic components and products on behalf of other companies.     

The idea was quite novel in those early days of economic liberalisation. Sundar Vachani – who had built a successful family venture of manufacturing television sets under the Weston brand – was initially sceptical of his son’s new plan. He tried to persuade young Vachani to join the family business. Finally, impressed by his son’s firm resolve, he blessed him and helped him with a small seed capital.

Mr Vachani rented out a factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and hired a handful of employees. This was the humble birth of Dixon Technologies in December 1993. The initial days were expectedly quite challenging. The company began assembling TV sets for a few brands. A big break came by the next year, when Goldstar (now LG Electronics) awarded a contract to Dixon to deliver 2,000 TV sets for the export market. Goldstar was happy with the job and went on to become its major client as LG.      

One thing led to another, and in the course of time, Dixon became a preferred manufacturer for many top global brands. From that single Noida facility, Dixon today boasts of 23 factories spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh. The Noida-headquartered company has three R&D centres – two in India and one in China. More than 22,000 employees of the electronics contract manufacturer are engaged in churning out multiple electronic products for many reputed global brands. So, Dixon quite rightly sports the tagline – The Brand Behind Brands. 

How did Dixon grow into this big manufacturing giant? Geopolitical developments in the post-pandemic era, like the China+1 strategy has certainly helped Dixon. Besides, the government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme is another favourable factor.

But beyond the external factors, the over Rs 17,500-crore contract manufacturer’s inherent strengths cannot be overlooked. First of all, Mr Vachani’s unwavering focus on electronics manufacturing at a time when it was not even a remote option gave Dixon the first-mover advantage. Moreover, the 56-year-old Dixon chief, who also loves reading and listening to old Hindi songs, has effectively derisked his business by diversifying across multiple categories. Meanwhile, Mr Vachani – a perfect poster boy of Make In India – could have another long list of products that may emerge from Dixon’s many assembly lines soon.