The assembler of the iconic Tecno Mobile and phone accessories in Ethiopia, Weiguo Yu and Junjie Lui, has formed a new corporate structure by merging its two factories that are located in Addis Ababa.
From now on, the two companies will be renamed as Transsion Manufacturing PLC. Following the new formation, Transsion PLC will be under the umbrella Transsion Holdings-China.
Tecno Mobile was established in 2008 in Hong Kong. Tecno which was founded as Tecno Telecom Limited later changed its name to Transsion Holdings with Tecno Mobile serving as one of its subsidiaries.
The Ethiopian version Transsion, in addition to Tecno and itel brand mobiles, will also include Syinix home appliances.
The company has officially announced the commencement of the new corporate structure, on May 24, 2017 at Hilton Addis.
Ethiopia is the only country in Africa where Transsion Holding has a presence.
At the launching event it was said that the company will no longer handle its product under two separate companies. Following the merger, Transsion will take all the liabilities and asset that were under the two plants.
The plants in Alem Gena and Gofa employ over 1,600 people. It has also a production capacity of producing one million mobile phones and tablet computers in a month. Over the past four months of this year, it has already exported products worth some 16.6 million dollars.
Last year, the company has managed to export 19.6 million dollars of mobile devices. For the current fiscal year, the company has targeted to increase its export to 40 million dollars.
Forming its business in Ethiopia ten years ago, Tecno first launch its assembly line around Meskel Flower.
“What we had in mind when we first began our business in Ethiopia was trade business – importing products and sell the imports to the local market,” Girma, one of the founders and a partner of Tecno Mobile, said.
However, following a recommendation from the government we changed our business to manufacturing, he said.
The two factories are now under an audit process by experts from the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority.
“I am sure the process will be finalized in a month,” sources told The Reporter.
Following this, the company will discontinue one of its plants and will move to its plant inside the ICT village. It is to be recalled that the company is investing close to 20 million dollars at the park.
In this respect, the company has secured a lease right of 30 years over 20,000sqm of land for 221 birr per square meter.
The plant at the ICT village is now under construction by a Chinese company called Vanlli. The first phase of the construction is expected to be finalized next year.
One of the plants – either in Alem Gena or Gofa – will be a dedicated assembler of refrigerators and other electronics items.
The new plant in the ICT village will accommodate around 2,000 workers. Along with this, the company has planned to boost its export value to 300 million dollars by the end of the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II).
