DataWind to hire another 300 in city

Hyderabad: Canadian low-cost internet devices manufacturer

DataWind

, the maker of Aakash tablets, on Friday announced that it will be hiring around 300 people over the next two to three months in Hyderabad.

The company currently employs 850 people at its manufacturing and customer care facility spread over 40,000 sft near the Shamshabad airport. The unit was set up last year at an investment of Rs 30 crore and has reached a manufacturing capacity of 10,000 units per day. The company also has a manufacturing unit in Amritsar, where its capacity is around 4,000 units per day.

“Over the next two months, we will be hiring over 300 people and will also be shifting another 250 people from our existing facility to a new one in Hyderabad. These will be mainly our customer care executives,” DataWind chief executive officer Suneet Singh Tuli said, on the sidelines of the launch of its new phablet -- MoreGMax 3G6 -- in the city in the presence of the mayor of Toronto, John Tory.

Speaking about revenues, he said the company’s sales have been hit hard by demonetisation and it expects revenues to grow marginally in 2016-17. Last financial year, DataWind had clocked sales of around Rs 240 crore and this year, it is eyeing Rs 250 crore, he added.

“As most of our products belong to the sub-Rs 5,000 category, our customers are the ones who generally do not use Paytm or digital payments​, the payment is usually via cash on delivery. Hence, after demonetisation, the company’s sales were hit in November and December,” he explained.

Tuli also pointed out that apart from smartphones and tablets, the company is gearing up to manufacture and market wearable devices soon. “The cost of these devices will be around 10-15% of our other devices, which is generally sub-Rs 5,000,” he added.

Tuli said DataWind has applied for a VNO (Virtual Network Operators) licence and the company expects the licence to be granted within a couple of months. Following this, the company will be able to launch data plans targeted at customers from the rural as well as non-metro regions of the country, he added.


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