Foxconn Taiwan Shunned by Chinese Xiaomi, moves to Assembler Dixon, an Indian Company

[ABS News Service/10.01.2024]

Foxconn Technology Group is losing a long-time executive in India, just as the manufacturer is pushing to expand in the South Asian country.

Josh Foulger, the country head of Foxconn’s BharatFIH arm, is leaving the company after nine years, people familiar with the matter said. His last day will be this month, they said, asking not to be named as the matter is private. His plans going forward couldn’t immediately be learned.

Foulger, a three-decade veteran in the electronics industry, has helped Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn and its customers including Xiaomi Corp. expand

in India. He worked closely with Xiaomi’s former India boss Manu Jain to assemble Xiaomi smartphones in local Foxconn factories, helping the Chinese brand become a force in the fast-growing Indian market.

Over time though, Bharat FIH began losing share of the Xiaomi business as the Chinese brand sought more local partners. Last year, Xiaomi added domestic contender Dixon Technologies India Ltd. as a smartphone assembler as the country’s government encouraged manufacturers to work more closely with Indian suppliers.

Bharat FIH has postponed plans to list on Indian stock exchanges, and has yet to make significant headway on its ambition to start manufacturing electric two-wheelers.

Taiwanese parent Foxconn, the world’s largest assembler of iPhones and other electronics for global brands, is expanding capacity in India as geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty begin to disrupt its main operations in China. Foxconn is setting aside roughly $2.7 billion primarily to build plants in southern India, joining other manufacturers in exploring the Asian country as an alternative global production base.

Prior to joining Foxconn, Foulger was a senior executive at NokiaOyj and oversaw a huge mobile-phone manufacturing complex for the Finnish company in southern India.