Tata Group To Open 100 Exclusive Apple Stores In India: Report

Indian conglomerate Tata Group is mulling to open 100 stores across India that will sell only Apple products.

Tata Group is already in talks to buy Wistron's iPhone manufacturing facility in southern state of Karnataka. Representative image.

Indian conglomerate Tata Group is mulling to open 100 stores across India that will sell only Apple products, says a report by the Economic Times newspaper, citing two people aware of the development. The stores will be opened by Tata Group-owned Infiniti Retail, which runs the Croma chain of stores in the country. Infiniti Retail is also said to set up stores at neighbourhood locations, shopping malls, among other areas.

Tata Group has started talks with premium malls and high streets and the lease terms include details of brands and stores that cannot be opened near these outlets, a retail consultant aware of the matter was quoted as saying by the report.

This development comes after last month it was reported that the Tata Group is in talks to buy Wistron's iPhone manufacturing facility in southern state of Karnataka. Wistron is one of the top Apple iPhone manufacturers in India.

Tata Group is eyeing the Wistron manufacturing facility in the southern state of Karnataka for Rs 4000-Rs 5000 crore, a report by The Economic Times said last month.

Wistron began making iPhones in India in 2017, after years of efforts by Apple to add manufacturing capabilities in the country. The Taipei-based company currently assembles iPhones at its plant in the state of Karnataka in southern India. Taipei City, Taiwan headquartered Wistron started making iPhones in India in 2017, which was a result of tech giant Apple's years of efforts to add manufacturing capabilities in the country. Wistron currently assembles iPhone models at its plant in the state of Karnataka.

The transaction, if successful, will help the salt-to-software conglomerate ramp up the manufacturing capabilities of group company Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd (TEPL) in precision engineering, the ET report added. TEPL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.