- The company is setting up the 3000th Mi Store in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh and it was noted that most of the Mi stores are profitable, and sustainable
- Their regulatory filing with the Registrar Of Companies (RoC) showed that the company’s total revenue in 2018-19 grew by 54 per cent to Rs 35,426.92 crore from Rs 23,061.11 crore in FY18
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi said that it continues to ramp up its network of Mi Stores with its exclusive retail outlets in India. They contribute about 15 per cent to its business in the country.
The company which entered India in 2014 and sold smartphones exclusively online has ventured into offline retail in 2017. Apart from Mi Stores, Xiaomi also operates its own chain of more than 75 Mi Homes, 45-plus Mi Studios and over 8,000 Mi Preferred Partners (through Franchise model)
Present all over India
Manu Jain, Managing Director of Xiaomi India commented, “Mi Stores are present in the smallest of cities and present in all possible locations, we have stores in Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar. A large number of them have been opened by people who have no retail experience or experience in the smartphone industry, these are people who wanted to become entrepreneurs and business owners.”
He also added that the company is setting up the 3000th Mi Store in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh and noted that most of the Mi stores are profitable, and sustainable. Presently, offline business contributes to almost half of our business in India and 30 per cent of that comes from Mi Stores. The company claims that its stores are the fastest growing channel as they have grown from 500 to 3000, the percentage contribution to business has grown from 5 per cent to about 15 per cent.
Generating employment
Xiaomi hasn’t disclosed any country specific revenue number so far along. Their regulatory filing with the Registrar Of Companies (RoC) showed that the company’s total revenue in 2018-19 grew by 54 per cent to Rs 35,426.92 crore from Rs 23,061.11 crore in FY18.
The Mi Stores network has been able to generate employment for over 6000 people across India. Jain also revealed that while the overall demand for smartphones, smart TVs and laptops is high as people continue to work and study from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, even products like trimmers are seeing a huge uptake.
Future Plans
Jain also revealed that the products which are India-specific continue to me made in India 100 per cent. Since the India factories are not fully ramped up, we have to import some products. The company is looking forward to go back to 100 per cent manufacturing in India before the festive season depending on how the pandemic situation plays out.
Manu jain also shared,”We are as Indian as any other company here. A lot of our product development happens in India. Some products have been designed from scratch like trimmers, water purifiers and some products see modifications. All of our manufacturing is in India, even 65 per cent of the value of tier I components are sourced locally and we are trying to move tier II components in that direction”
Opportunities
He also added that various brands even in the FMCG space carry out some core functions like R&D in other parts of the world but the product deployment and innovations for specific markets is carried out by local terms.
He also commented, “We have done very little of what the overall potential of India is…and that can only be done if we are building a truly local company with local leadership, product development, R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing, shops, everything is local.”
