The Tata Group is reportedly planning to open small exclusive Apple stores soon. These stores, which are expected to sell just Apple products, will be available in malls, high-street neighbourhood areas and few other places.
As per a report in the Economic Times, Tata Group aims to open these small exclusive Apple stores across the country. For this, Apple is reportedly tying up with Tata-owned Infiniti Retail, the company that runs Croma store chain.
With this, Infiniti Retail will become Apple’s franchisee partner, as per the report. These 100 small exclusive stores are expected to be of 500-600 sq ft each and can be touted as Apple Authorised Resellers. However, they will be different and smaller from Apple Premium Reseller stores as the latter are usually 1,000 sp ft in area.
It also expected that these small 100 exclusive stores will mostly focus on selling iPads, iPhones and watches as the bigger stores will be selling MacBooks and the entire Apple range. However, more would only be known once the plan turns into reality.
The ET report adds that India currently has about 160 Apple Premium Reseller stores. This Apple-Tata partnership comes at a time when Apple’s first company owned flagship store is set for an opening in Mumbai soon.
With this move, the Tata Group adds another feather to its cap of venturing into new alliances and businesses. Recently, the group made headlines after it announced Air India’s merger with Vistara. The group also reportedly plans to start manufacturing semi-conductor chips in India to place the country on the world map.
