While contract electronics manufacturing is not a new concept in India, it has lately picked up a pace never seen before. But what has it enabled for one of India’s leading wearables and hearables brand, Boult? The company’s Co-founder, Varun Gupta, shares with EFY’s Mukul Yudhveer Singh.
Q. What levels of localisation has Boult achieved for the products it sells in India?
A. Unfortunately, India does not have the capability to produce many components, including drivers, LEDs, displays, PCBs, and semiconductors. For semiconductors, we follow the surface mount technology route; for batteries, the cells come from China, but the packaging of cells has started happening in India. Essentially, many of the primary core components come from outside India.
That said, Boult is now sourcing many peripheral components from India. These include the body, plastics, metals, silicone, USB cables, charging cables, packaging, and more.
Q. Does Boult manufacture products independently, or is manufacturing sourced to electronics manufacturing service providers?
A. About a quarter percentage of the manufacturing cum assembling is done in-house, while the rest is sourced out to EMS companies via the contract manufacturing route. Most of these EMS companies are based in northern India.
Q. While using the contract manufacturing route, how do you ensure quality standards for all the products?
A. I think our ratings across platforms have been consistent because we have maintained the quality of products we retail in India. The same has been achieved because we design products ourselves. We use 3D printing machines for prototypes.
Each piece of the different components we source goes through the same tests. Also, Boult employees and line managers are stationed at every assembly location.
| Boult is present in India, the US, the UK, and Nepal. About 55% of the company’s revenue comes from Tier-2, 3, and 4 cities. Boult reported revenues of ₹5 billion+ in tax returns. The company expects to grow by at least 50% this fiscal year. |
Q. What do these line managers do at third-party EMS facilities?
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