Handset maker OnePlus has confirmed it has brought back Robin Liu to head its India operations and re-appointed Ramagopala Reddy as its vice president, as part of an internal restructuring. Robin previously led sales for OnePlus India for about 19 months until January 2022. The company stated that it is reinforcing its core presence and further expanding its footprint in the Indian market, says a report by news agency IANS.
This comes at a time when Samrudh Pai, who oversaw OnePlus’s offline business, has departed from the company. Earlier the sales director, Ranjeet Singh has been assigned to head OnePlus' online business in the country.
“Furthermore, in addition to Robin Liu joining us, we are happy to share that Ramagopala Reddy who has joined us back as Vice President for the OnePlus India region,” the company was quoted as saying in a statement.
OnePlus further added that it continues to have a “robust and stable India leadership team in place.”
No Indian Executive Leading OnePlus India Operations
Notably, Navnit Nakra, the former CEO of OnePlus India left the company in June last year. At his departure, the handset maker told ABPLive in a statement that it will "continue to strengthen its focus in India." The company did not appoint any Indian executive to lead its operations in the country since Nakra's departure. Reports suggest that the company's key Indian executives now report to Max Chen, a former vice president of Oppo.
OnePlus recently made headlines in the wake of conflicts with offline retailers in the country, who threatened to stop selling the OnePlus-branded phones. The Organised Retailer Association in the South-West region issued an ultimatum, stating they would ban OnePlus phone sales if issues were not resolved by May 1. Despite this, checks across stores in the Delhi-NCR region and other parts of the country revealed that many retailers still had OnePlus devices in stock.
The boycott spread to multiple states in the northern part of the country due to similar grievances. In February, retailers nationwide claimed that unauthorised diversion of products from e-commerce to retail channels was causing disruptions in fund rotation and depriving the government of additional rotational GST revenue.