TP-Link India, one of the largest manufacturers of network equipment globally known due to their Wi-Fi router and mesh network devices, will take a giant leap towards local production. The firm is making a great initiative in the Indian market, where it hopes to build its biggest global factory in India. This is an important investment component of a five-year expansion strategy that indicates that India is increasingly becoming important in the global strategy of TP-Link. 

Investment and expansion

TP-Link has intended to invest more than ₹100 crores to build this large factory in the coming five years. This investment plays a crucial role towards the goal of the business, not only to increase production locally but also to place India in the position of its largest market in the world. The size of the proposed plant implies that it is going to be larger than any other plant that the company runs at the moment.

The firm has already initiated negotiations with three state governments to agree on a good location to be used to construct the new facility. In a news report, Bijoy Alaylo, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of TP-Link India, has confirmed that the company is still in the process of analyzing potential locations and is waiting on the requisite government approvals to proceed with the project.

The new manufacturing center in India will be the third large-scale production center of TP-Link in the world, which has factories in Brazil and Vietnam. The strategic decision to have a large-scale facility in India is set to change the role of the country in the global level operation of the company.

The production of the Indian plant is to be allocated to the domestic market for a span of about two years. After this preliminary step, the company will shift its operations and start exporting the products produced in India to the other global markets, but with specific regions, which will include the West Asian, African, and Turkish regions. This will conveniently incorporate the Indian facility in the global supply chain of TP-Link.

The network gadget manufacturer has significant expectations of its operations in India as it projects them to quickly threaten the position of its present biggest market, the US. TP-Link India COO said in the news report that the India business is projected to be almost comparable with that of the US in the next two years. India may become the largest market in the world of the company in a period of three to five years.

Besides its conventional area of specialization in consumer networking products such as Wi-Fi devices, the company is considering diversifying its products. It is planning to enter the enterprise solutions market segment, which is now showing a stable growth of double digits per quarter. This growth involves partnerships with a number of other companies to create novel AI-powered enterprise software, including automated number plate recognition systems and people-counting systems.

Operational structure and comprehensive restructuring

TP-Link will invest considerably in the expansion of its local production presence. Currently, the large proportion of products distributed by the company in India, approximately 92% are already produced in India using contract manufacturers. The short-term objective of the company is to increase this figure of local production to even greater heights, which shall be within 96-97% in the next three years.

The company and other Chinese hardware manufacturers, such as Huawei, were already under scrutiny in security matters under the first Donald Trump regime. As a reaction to these geopolitical tensions, in early 2022, the company began a major global restructuring plan, which was finalized in May 2024.

In this new operational structure, TP-Link officially divided the TP-Link Corporation Group into TP-Link Technologies China. The new TP-Link Corporation Group has two headquarters, and most importantly, TP-Link India is an arm of the US-based corporation. The original Chinese company, TP-Link Technologies China, is now restricted to the domestic market of mainland China.

In spite of this radical reorganization, the firm is still under external scrutiny. According to a report released on October 9, the US government was considering limiting the US operations of TP-Link. The report, citing active investigations, proposed that Washington could make an initial determination and declare TP-Link a national security threat because of renewed concern over its links to China.

Conclusion

The move to establish its biggest international plant in India, with an investment of over ₹100 crore to support a five-year strategy, is a strategic step towards achieving success for TP-Link. This project will have the effect of establishing India as the third main production center of the company and the future largest market, possibly surpassing the US in three to five years. TP-Link is consolidating its presence by increasing its local manufacturing from 92% to nearly 97% and switching to in-house production.