Samsung Electronics has begun a large-scale workforce reduction in India, centered on its TV and home appliance businesses. Rising costs, weak consumer demand, and organizational restructuring have converged, with approximately 80 to 100 employees, including executive-level staff, being asked to resign.

According to a report by Indian business daily The Economic Times, the layoffs are being carried out in phases across various levels, from director-level executives and team leaders at headquarters to branch and regional managers. Resignation notices have been issued in small batches over recent days, and some employees were reportedly asked to leave immediately without serving out their notice period.

The severance package offered by the company includes three months’ salary plus one month’s pay for each year of service. A source told the publication, “Workforce streamlining is underway in the home appliance and TV businesses, and a second round of layoffs could follow after Diwali.”

Background and Scale of the Layoffs

The direct drivers behind this restructuring include memory semiconductor prices more than doubling, compounded by a weakening rupee and rising raw material costs. Adding to the pressure, smartphone sales volume in the Indian market fell 11–12% year-over-year, further straining costs.

Samsung’s domestic sales organization for electronics in India, excluding the smartphone sales team, is known to comprise roughly 550–600 executive and manager-level personnel. Industry observers believe that up to 25% of sales and marketing staff in the electronics business, including contract workers hired through staffing agencies, could be affected by the layoffs.

The current cuts are concentrated in the TV and home appliance divisions. Home appliances represent Samsung India’s second-largest business segment, accounting for approximately 11% of revenue. Samsung pursued an aggressive expansion strategy in the air conditioner market this year but failed to secure sufficient footing in the premium segment, and rising raw material costs have made profitability improvements difficult.

Smartphones Excluded for Now

Samsung’s core smartphone division has been excluded from this round of layoffs. Mobile accounts for roughly three-quarters of Samsung’s revenue in India, making smartphones effectively the company’s primary profit engine.

The company is also pinning hopes on a potential consumption recovery ahead of Diwali, India’s biggest festival. Premium products like the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip have been receiving relatively positive responses, which is another encouraging sign. A source said, “There are no immediate layoff plans for the mobile business; the company will assess sales recovery during the Diwali period before making any decisions.”

That said, the smartphone business is hardly in a comfortable position. According to the latest data from market research firms Counterpoint Research and IDC, Samsung held the No. 2 spot in India’s smartphone market in the second quarter of this year with shares of 17.6% and 16.4%, respectively. However, Counterpoint’s figures show Samsung slipped from second to third place compared with the previous quarter.

The premium smartphone segment above 100,000 rupees (approximately $1,200), despite the strong performance of the Galaxy Fold and Flip, accounts for only about 4% of total sales volume—too small to offset the broader market slump. Samsung is known to have raised prices on some smartphone models by 5–10%, and the All India Mobile Retailers Association reported that foot traffic at consumer stores has plunged by roughly 40% due to successive price hikes.

Organizational Restructuring and Outlook

Samsung is also undertaking a physical reorganization of its Indian operations. Multiple branches are being consolidated, with offices in Ranchi and Patna, Delhi and Gurgaon, and Punjab and Chandigarh being merged. As a result, employees in overlapping roles are being reduced.

A plan to merge the home appliance and TV sales organizations into a single unit to reduce management layers was also pursued, but that integration has reportedly been postponed to the December quarter.

Industry observers believe this restructuring may not be a one-off event. There is speculation that additional workforce streamlining could occur after Diwali, particularly in the TV and home appliance divisions.

The India layoffs are part of Samsung’s broader global restructuring efforts. In July, Samsung cut more than 700 jobs in its U.S. consumer electronics business. Those reductions affected display, mobile phone, and other consumer electronics operations, primarily impacting employees in New Jersey and Texas.

At the time, Samsung said in a statement that it was “optimizing certain functions to align roles with core business priorities.” Earlier in January, Samsung announced plans to invest $648 billion (approximately 870.8 trillion won) in AI-related fields in South Korea over the next decade.