With the government's focus on make-in-India and recent development around imposing restrictions on importing certain TV sets in the country, Kodak TV will be investing Rs 500 crore in a fully-automated TV manufacturing plant over next three years. This fully-automated TV manufacturing plant in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh will have complete backward integration and R&D centre. The facility is likely to increase its production from half a million to 1 million sets a year. If everything goes well the facility will be ready to operate by the end of 2021.

"With our partnership with Google and the license for Android TVs Kodak Televisions, our initiative is to go global. We will invest more than Rs 500 crores in a fully automated TV manufacturing plant in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, over the next 3 years. Our focus will be on the development of new technology products, new designs and a state of art R&D department. With the Make in India initiative, there will be more raw materials factories in India, exceeding the making the total value addition by exceed up to 60 per cent. We will also be investing big on machinery for moulding of TVs which will make us the first TV manufacturers to start moulding for 50-inch and above led TVs in India," says Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO, Super Plastronics Pt Ltd, a Kodak brand licensee.

According to Marwah, this new automated manufacturing facility will be a state-of-the-art television line. The company is investing almost Rs 150 crore in a new automated line for accuracy and efficacy. "With the coronavirus outbreak, the new normal has changed significantly. The new normal for manufacturing is automation and AI technology to ensure less human intervention. You will now see more robotic lines to improve accuracy and reduce the scare of the infection spreading." The plant will also generate around 2,000 more jobs.

Currently, for LEDs, companies' value additions are about 10-15 per cent, which are sourced locally but the rest is imported from different parts of the world. There are no components manufacturers in India and some critical components are available only in China. Hence, currently, OEMs are left with no other option but to source them from different countries.

"The problem is aggravated as LG and Samsung have closed their display lines this year. However, we feel that this investment is the first step towards the future where India can be self-reliant in TV manufacturing. We feel that for any manufacturing, assembly is an important first step. With the government aggressively pushing for Make in India, there will be more developments on components. With these, value addition is expected to increase to up to 30 per cent," adds Marwah.

Currently, Kodak TVs has a market share of 5 per cent in the smart TV category, which the company plans to increase to 8 per cent in the next three years. Kodak TVs are sold in more than 2300 cities and towns and is available in more than 1700 pin codes. The TVs are available across Amazon, Flipkart, and Reliance and leading stores such as Metro, Walmart, Spencer's Retail and Reliance.