Foxconn brand driving Hon Hai's revenue growth

"There are no 'best products' for these markets, but there are 'right products' which cater to the needs of each market." Christin Wang, global marketing manager at Hon Hai

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's largest EMS company, yesterday said it expects stronger growth from its branded PC component business on the back of robust sales from emerging markets.

"Our sales in the first four months rose 110 percent from the same period last year," said Christin Wang (王文玉), a global marketing manager at Hon Hai's "Foxconn" brand business.

The strong results came from robust sales in the Middle East and South America -- Hon Hai's fastest growing markets.

Foxconn's sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa were up 43 percent in the first four months of the year, the company said in a statement.

Foxconn's sales in the Americas posted four-fold growth, while revenues were up eight-fold in Central and South America, it said.

In the Asia-Pacific region, sales growth was 132 percent, with emerging markets India and Vietnam posting a five-fold rise.

"There are no 'best products' for these markets, but there are 'right products' which cater to the needs of each market," said Wang on the sidelines of the Computex trade fair yesterday.

Three years ago, Hon Hai started selling computer connectors and coolers under the Foxconn brand in the overseas clone market after supplying electronics components to companies such as Dell Inc for years.

Hon Hai, which has more than 200 sales and marketing teams that promote the Foxconn brand, will dedicate more resources to high-end products in fields like gaming this year, Wang said.

The company has also been closely following Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) into the motherboard field. Asustek, the world's largest motherboard maker, and Intel Corp unveiled a low-cost laptop that would sell for less than US$200 at Computex yesterday.

Meanwhile, commenting on the impact of the merger of Flextronics International Ltd and Solectron Corp, Vincent Chen (陳豊丰), a research analyst with the investment banking house CLSA Ltd, said he did not expect the merger to impact on Hon Hai.

"Flextronics' management will be focused on making sure the integration of Solectron goes smoothly over the next 12 months. And during this time, Hon Hai can aggressively win more businesses from either one of them," he said in a research note.

The combined revenues of Flextronics and Solectron were about US$28 billion last year, compared with Hon Hai's US$40 billion, he said.

source: Taipei Times