Tata Group plans to open 100 Small Exclusive Apple Stores.

The development comes ahead of the opening of the iPhone maker's first company-owned flagship store in Mumbai

In Short-

• Tata could also consider a joint venture with Taiwan's Wistron.

• Wistron’s manufacturing plant in Narasapura is the only plant in India.

• The company only manufactures devices and components for Apple.

The Tata Group aims to open small exclusive Apple stores across the country, two people aware of the development said.

Last month, it was reported that the group was in talks to buy Wistron's only manufacturing facility in India for up to Rs. 5,000 crores, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Infiniti Retail will become an Apple franchisee partner and aims to open 100 stores at malls as well as high-street neighborhood locations. The Tata-Apple partnership comes as Apple is set to open its first-ever company-owned flagship store in Mumbai in the first quarter of 2023.

The Apple-owned store has been in the works since the year 2019 and has been delayed due to a pandemic.

The report says that these Apple Authorised Reseller stores will be smaller than Apple Premium Reseller stores. The Apple Premium Reseller stores are typically more than 1,000 sq ft in area, these stores will be 500-600 sq ft each. While the smaller stores will sell iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch.

There will also be larger format stores that will have the entire Apple range, including MacBooks computers. India currently has about 160 Apple Premium Reseller stores.

"Tata has already started discussions with premium malls and high streets for space," a retail consultant aware of the development told Economic Times.

Apple's first company-owned flagship store is likely to launch in India in the March quarter in Mumbai.

Apple is focusing on boosting sales in India and planning to expand its production capability.

Another report by Mint said that it has also told the three producers in India, Wistron, Foxconn, and Pegatron, to triple their production in the next two years. The Cupertino-based tech giant is adding manpower and assembly lines to achieve that.

"They're looking to scale up the volumes that they make from India...it can rise by more than three times what they aim to make this year," an industry executive told Mint.

With this, the country may even be able to export India-made iPhones.

Among those, Apple CEO said that India had set “a new all-time revenue record.” He added that the company set a quarterly record for “upgraders” — those who move from older iPhones to newer ones. Not only this but there was also double-digit growth among “switchers” — those who move from Android to iPhone.

Apple saw its global iPhone revenue soar to a record $42.6 billion with the new iPhone 14 driving quick sales in India. A report by CyberMedia Research (CMR) pointed out that iPhone volumes in India grew by 44 percent quarter-on-quarter in the July-September period to 1.7 million units.