Crafting Dixon's Electronics Revolution

Lall aligns Dixon's strategy with Make In India to build an electronics behemoth.

- Urvashi Mishra

IT WAS nothing more than a bold experiment but that’s how most success stories begin. Dixon Technologies was born in a small rented factory in Noida in 1993 with a modest capital of `40 lakh. At a time when the concept of outsourcing and electronic manufacturing services was unheard of in India, the company secured an order from Lucky Gold Star, later renamed LG. “They gave us an opportunity to make box-style TVs for export to Europe. We were assembling 5,000 units a month,” recalls Atul Lall, CEO & MD of Dixon Technologies. This marked the beginning of a journey to become India’s most prominent electronics manufacturer.

Today, Dixon is a key player in India’s electronics sector, with market capitalisation of $10 billion-plus. The company has evolved far beyond its humble beginnings, driven by innovation, resilience and alignment with goals of India’s electronics manufacturing sector. But the journey hasn’t been without challenges.

Early Days & Turning Points

The early days were about survival and persistence.”We didn’t have any money, and the concept of outsourcing was foreign in India,” he says. Over the years, he added more categories and built a diverse portfolio.

While Dixon experienced steady growth in first two decades, the turning point came around 2013-14. The global geopolitical landscape began shifting, and with China becoming more expensive for manufacturing, India emerged as a viable alternative. Simultaneously, Indian government introduced policies for local manufacturing, including Make in India and later Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme. “We could see the trend. It was time for India’s electronics manufacturing sector to take off,” says Lall.