The country’s largest conglomerate major Tata Group, is now reportedly in talks to put in place 100 small exclusive Apple stores across India through its retail chain company Infiniti Retail.
According to a report published by the newspaper daily Economic Times, Tata and Apple are in partnership discussions for the Tata Group conglomerate to open 100 small and exclusive Apple stores in malls and high street areas, along with neighborhood locations.
The ET report stated that the stores set up by Tata Group’s Indian retail chain of consumer electronics and durables Croma will be smaller in size, when compared to Apple Premium Reseller stores which expand over areas of 1,000 sq ft.
The smaller stores by Tata Group’s Infiniti Retail will house (sell) Apple products including iPads, iPhones and Apple watches. Premium Apple outlets will sell the entire range of electronic products lined by Apple, including Apple’s in-house laptops, MacBooks.
At present there are 160 Apple Premium Reseller stores spread across the country.
“Tata has already started discussions with premium malls and high streets for space,” said a retail consultant privy of the matter.
According to the published report, the auto-to-software conglomerate has already started conversations with premium malls and high streets around areas related to lease terms.
This includes details of brands and stores that cannot be opened near the said outlets, stated the publication. Both Apple India and Infiniti Retail did not respond to Economic Times’ queries sent to them.
Further, according to a report published by Mint, the three Apple product sellers in India, namely Wistron, Foxconn and Pegatron are set to increase their production in the country by a whopping three times over the next two years.
“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,” noted an industry executive.
