As per the report of the Financial Times, Apple has already begun to fill out its not-yet-announced stores in India. The company’s latest job listings display new openings for 12 retail roles at “different locations” throughout the country. Retail roles include store leaders, senior managers, Genius Bar workers, and more.
The job listings had direct references to the Apple Store. The job listing included both full-time and part-time positions. However, there’s no indication of how many available roles. At least five Mumbai and New Delhi employees shared the news of getting hired for upcoming stores on LinkedIn. Financial Times reported this news of hiring. Renu Sevanthi is the recruiting head of Apple in India. At the same time, she “celebrated” the news of their hiring in a post on the network.
The July 2022 report from The Economics Times, indicates that Apple is planning to open a 22,000-square-foot store in Mumbai. The store is reportedly to start at the beginning of this year. There are reports that the company is working on a 10,000 to 12,000-square-foot store in New Delhi and several other stores in the country. But the air isn’t clear over when they will open their doors.
In 2020, Apple first made its online store available to customers in India. Around the same time, CEO Tim Cook hinted at establishing a physical presence during a shareholder meeting. Cook said, ” I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us”. He referred to third-party retailers selling iPhones to customers at brick-and-mortar stores in India. Cook said that Apple would initially open its first store in India in 2021. However, these plans got postponed owing to the Covid pandemic. It got postponed again for the second time last year.
Apple is looking forward to expanding its retail mark in the country. Thus they are bringing more production to India. The company first began producing iPhones in India in 2017. They shifted production of the iPhone 14 from China to India in the weeks after its release. Due to political reasons, Apple is trying to distance itself from China. Another reason is to cut costs amidst rough economic conditions. It seems like India is starting to look like an attractive manufacturing hub. It beats China and Vietnam as the country with the cheapest manufacturing costs. It also has a massive smartphone market. Apple has only started to tap into this.
