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UK co sets up laptop unit in India

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CIOL Bureau
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GANDHINAGAR: Allied Computers Industry Plc. (ACi) will begin manufacturing laptops at its new plant in Gujarat from end-July, its chairman said.



UK-based ACi will initially make its 'Ethos' brand of laptops for the domestic and UK markets and will scale up production capacity to 50,000 units per month by March 2005.



The company's new unit, the first outside the UK, involves an investment of 200 million rupees, he said.



ACi will stop manufacturing notebooks in the UK by September 2005 and make them at the Indian unit, located at an information technology park in Gujarat's capital, Gandhinagar.



"This facility will help bring prices of notebook down even further and spark a massive boom in notebook market in all the companies of ACi's operations," said Hirji Patel, ACi's chairman.



The firm plans to export laptops manufactured at Gandhinagar unit to the Middle East, Sri Lanka, South Africa and East Africa, the statement said.



Patel told a news conference that India's annual sales of branded laptops were likely to grow 55-60 percent in 2004 from about 70,000 units last year. ACi was looking to garner a substantial share of the market, he said.



India's notebook market is currently dominated by international players such as International Business Machines Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Toshiba Corp. and Dell Inc.

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