ITC Prime Supplier Of Packaging Material & Box Cartons For Phone Co
IT
HAS remained a well kept secret for a while. ITC
Ltd is now the principal supplier of value-added
packaging material and box cartons for every
Nokia cellphone that gets shipped to as many as
50 countries from the Finnish telecom giant’s
Chennai factory. Nokia has silently inked a bulk
purchase agreement with the $4.75-billion plus
cigarettes-to-hotels conglomerate, wherein ITC
is now the prime vendor of packaging material
and customised microfluted cartons for all Nokia
phones and accessories manufactured in Chennai.
When contacted, both Nokia India and ITC
confirmed the development. According to a Nokia
India spokeswoman: “The decision to enter into a
global purchase pact with ITC for packaging
cellphones manufactured in Chennai is in step
with Nokia’s global sourcing strategy, wherein
the packaging material and box cartons are
procured from a local supplier nearest to its
handset manufacturing plant. We can’t share
commercials but such international purchase
agreements are reviewed periodically.”
As Nokia phones shipped from Chennai hit several
global retail points in 50 countries, ITC has to
manufacture boxes that meet the Finnish player’s
stringent quality standards. “Since all sales
boxes and the larger shipping cartons supplied
by ITC will carry the Nokia brand and hit
several of our international retail points,
quality consistency is critical. The boxes will
also need to have very high grade image graphics
and texture,” said Mr Josh Foulger, who is
Nokia’s national sourcing head for India.
Like ITC, Nokia has similar purchase agreements
in place with other country-specific cellphone
packaging suppliers in Finland, Hungary,
Romania, China, Korea, Mexico and Brazil where
it has similar handset manufacturing factories.
In this light, a senior ITC executive said: “ITC
has improved its own quality systems to deliver
value to an international customer of repute
such as Nokia in the Sriperumbudur SEZ near
Chennai.” In fact, ITC has a large unit in
Chennai where it manufactures packaging
solutions for leading tobacco, electronics, food
& beverage and personal care products.
Ever since Nokia started churning out 'Made in
India’ cellphones from its Chennai facility in
March 2006, it has manufactured well over 200
million mobiles to meet the requirements of
India and other export markets encompassing
Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, New Zealand
and Australia. While company officials declined
to share handset numbers, Nokia, it is learnt,
rolls out over 100 million mobiles a year from
Chennai.
