India's largest conglomerate, Tata Group, is close to an agreement wherein it can become the country's first iPhone maker.
Tata is nearing a deal to take over a factory owned by Apple supplier Wistron in Karnataka, according to a report by Bloomberg citing people privy with the matter, marking the first time an Indian company would move into the assembly of iPhones.
A takeover of the Wistron factory in Karnataka, potentially valued at more than $600 million (roughly Rs. 4,900 crore), is a result of about a year of negotiations, said a report by Bloomberg citing people privy to the matter.
The report claims that Wistron has promised Apple to ship $1.8 billion dollar worth of iPhones by March 2024. The iPhone maker had also committed to triple the workforce of the factory by next year. The report suggests that Tata Group will deliver these commitments once it finalizes the deal.
Wistron, along with its fellow-Taiwanese companies Foxconn and Pegatron Corp, manufactures Apple's iPhones in India. Wistron entered India in 2008 with a repair facility servicing PCs, laptops, servers and other devices it manufactured. In 2017, it started making iPhones for Apple including iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12 and the iPhone SE.
In April, Apple launched its first retail store in India — Apple BKC, in Mumbai with over 100 Apple team members to cater to the customers, and even Tim Cook visited the country to inaugurate the store.
In May, reports of Wistron exiting its Apple business in India came up citing reasons that its struggling to make profits under Apple’s terms.
Apple has been trying to reduce manufacturing dependence on China and move to India since its biggest contract manufacturer and partner Foxconn witnessed unrest in China at the Zhengzhou manufacturing plant last year.
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