HonorTech to Invest Rs 1,000 cr Initially, Relaunching Smartphones Around September

According to a senior corporate official, HonorTech will relaunch the Honor brand of smartphones in the nation in September and initially invest Rs 1,000 crore in the venture. HonorTech will collaborate with a Chinese smart device business called Honor in India for the relaunch as part of a license agreement.

According to HonorTech CEO Madhav Sheth, the business would seek to achieve a 4-5% volume market share by the end of the next year, which will result in sales of Rs 10,000 crore.

Honor's take on the Rs 1,000 cr investment?

"The government is considering the idea that the business and power of the company should be owned by Indians.”HonorTech is a completely Indian entity. We work under a license agreement with Honor where they license us, and we do everything from sales to manufacturing in India. The credit does not belong to Honor, said Sheth.

Which company essentially owns Honor?

The Honor brand was launched and is owned by Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which sold it to another Chinese company, Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, in November 2020. Sheth recently left Realme where he led their international business including India.

He started his joint venture HonorTech with PSAV Global owned by entrepreneur C P Khandelwal. "70 percent of Honor's production is fully automatic, and 40 percent of the machines are completely manufactured by them. We have to follow similar standards in India.

Under the agreement, Honor will help us with product expertise by managing the entire supply chain, technology transfer and software transfers at a fixed price," Sheth said. He said the company will initially source some Honor products for testing in the Indian market and plans to start manufacturing them. Locally by the end of this year.

"We will be launching Honor smartphones from next month. We negotiate with electronics manufacturing services that are eligible for manufacturing PLI (Production Linked Incentive). Our target is to start shipping products in India in November or December,” said Sheth.

Honor partnership with PSAV

Meanwhile, Honor has announced a major partnership that will help the company rapidly expand its presence in the country. The collaboration is with PSAV Global, a local company that offers a wide network of more than 5,000 dealers and distributors in more than 100 cities.

The partner also provides Honor with marketing, service and distribution solutions. The announcement came from HonorTech, Honor's Indian brand, promising "advanced, reliable and self-centric solutions and experiences" for its customers. The collaboration is in line with the Indian government's drive for "technological self-reliance" and is an important milestone in that direction.

In short, PSAV Global is doing a lot of fieldwork for Honor as it builds its local operations. The company helps bring equipment to the country, takes care of distribution channels and storage, handles marketing campaigns and offers warranty and repair service.