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Samsung India Electronics has begun a significant workforce reduction, laying off mid-to-senior-level employees in its Consumer Electronics division, with further cuts anticipated as the company navigates rising input costs, muted consumer demand, and intense market competition.
Photograph: Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters
Key Points
- Samsung India has commenced job cuts in its Consumer Electronics (CE) division, affecting 8-10 mid-to-senior-level employees.
- The company plans to lay off an additional 40-50 staff in the coming weeks as part of a cost-rationalisation exercise.
- The layoffs are driven by rising input costs, subdued consumer demand, and fierce competition from rival brands in the CE segment.
- Samsung is also merging several branch offices across the country, which is expected to lead to further redundancies.
- Despite leading the TV market, Samsung faces stiff competition in appliances and the smartphone segment, particularly from Apple in premium phones and Chinese brands in affordable ranges.
Samsung India Electronics, a leading player in the mobile phone and consumer appliances space, has laid off 8-10 mid-to-senior-level employees and plans to let go of another 40-50 staff in the coming weeks as part of a cost-rationalisation exercise amid rising input costs and muted consumer demand, industry sources said.
The layoffs are taking place in the Consumer Electronics (CE) division of Samsung India, which houses its televisions, digital appliances, and home electronics businesses, they said.
Workforce Reduction Details
In the first phase, the company has laid off around 8-10 employees from the CE division, ranging from general manager, team lead and branch/area manager to even director level.
In the second round, Samsung Electronics India may lay off another 40 to 50 people, industry sources told PTI.
The move is aimed at trimming the workforce and driving efficiency as Samsung India faces stiff competition in the CE business from rival Korean and Chinese players, with competitive intensity running high in the segment.
The team has around 500 to 600 executives.
A query sent to Samsung India over the development remained unanswered till the time of filing of the story.
Branch Mergers and Market Challenges
Samsung is also merging a few of its branch offices across the country, which will lead to some redundancies, they added.
It has recently merged its Patna and Ranchi branches.
A similar exercise is also being taken up for the Delhi-Gurugram and Punjab-Chandigarh branches, among others that are likely to be merged, they added.
Samsung, which had a revenue of Rs 1.14 lakh crore in FY25, garners 10 to 12 per cent from the CE business, and a majority, around 70 per cent, comes from its handphones business.
In the CE division, though Samsung leads in the TV market, including the premium segment, and has been the top seller for nine consecutive years, in appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, it faces very stiff competition.
The Korean major tried to make a comeback in the room air-conditioner segment, but is yet to make an impact.
Competition in Handphones and External Pressures
Even in the handphones business, Samsung is facing stiff competition.
In the super-premium smartphone segment, priced over USD 800 dollars, in the Indian market, Apple is the company’s key rival.
In the affordable and mid-range segments, competition has further intensified with the presence of Chinese smartphone brands offering feature-rich devices at competitive prices.
Samsung, like other players, is also facing challenges from the weakening Indian rupee against the US dollar, making the import of components costlier amid softening of consumer demand, which has squeezed margins here.
Besides, there are challenges from a sharp rise in memory chip prices over the past year, driven by strong demand from artificial intelligence (AI) applications, data centres, and high-end consumer electronics.
The company’s smartphone division is not expected to see immediate job losses, with Samsung anticipating a sales recovery during the festive season, though the business could be reviewed later, they added.
The company had carried out a similar restructuring drive globally, and is reported to have cut over 700 jobs across its US display, smartphone and other consumer electronics operations in July.
