Electronics manufacturing ladder 1 of 4 · the word

What is EMS

A company that builds electronics for other companies’ brands — the phone, the air conditioner, the circuit board inside a car — and sells almost nothing under its own name.
Paid for every unit it builds. The margin is thin for high-volume work and wider for specialised work: 3.8% of sales in FY26 at Dixon, which makes phones by the million, against 15.8% at Kaynes, which builds for cars, trains and aircraft.
Costs are passed on. When copper or chips get dearer the selling price rises, the rupees of profit per unit stay about the same, and the margin as a percentage falls.
The way up is to design the product or make the parts inside it — circuit boards, compressors, displays. Each company on the next level is spending on that now.

Where the electronics end up — five markets

Phones & computersSmartphones, laptops and IT hardware

Appliances & TVsAir conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, televisions, lighting

AutomotiveElectronics that go into vehicles

Industrial & medicalFactory equipment and hospital devices

Rail, aerospace & defenceTrains, metros, aircraft, satellites and defence systems

A company can build for one market or all five. Which markets each of India’s listed electronics manufacturers serves is the next level of this ladder.

Four words you will meet

PCB and PCBA	A PCB is the bare circuit board. A PCBA is the same board with the chips and parts fitted — what most EMS companies make.
Box build	Putting the boards into a finished, working product, in its case, ready to ship.
ODM	Original design manufacturer: designs the product itself, then builds it for a brand to sell as its own.
PLI and ECMS	Government incentives. PLI pays for extra output of finished goods; ECMS pays for making the parts inside them in India.

EMS vs ODM vs OEM

	OEM	EMS	ODM
Is	The brand	The builder	The designer and builder
Designs the product	Yes	No — builds to the brand’s design	Yes — the brand buys a ready design
Name on the box	Its own	The brand’s	The brand’s
Earns	The price the shopper pays	A margin on each unit built	A margin on each unit, usually wider

Five listed Indian electronics manufacturers, combined revenue, ₹ crore

11kFY21

18kFY22

24kFY23

32kFY24

60kFY25

75kFY26

From ₹11,488 crore in FY21 to ₹74,793 crore in FY26 — 45% a year, compounded. Annual accounts of the companies on this site; only years all of them report.

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One level deeperEMS stocks in India, side by side — who does what, and how big

Not advice. Definitions are ours; figures are the companies’ own, from their annual accounts.

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What is EMS

What is EMS

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