Tata Sons will be soon sealing the deal to acquire Taiwanese firm Wistron's existing plant near Bengaluru for around Rs 5,000 crore, thereby setting India’s first homegrown production line for Apple products. The salt-to-power conglomerate has been in talks with Taiwan-based Wistron Corp., for months. If the deal is signed, Tata Group could start assembling the iPhone 15 by this year's end.
According to a report in Business Standard, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran met Apple CEO Tim Cook in Mumbai on Monday and discussed the group’s plans to make and sell Apple products in India.
Besides, the Tata group is also looking into investing Rs 6,300 crore in Tata Electronics’ plant in Hosur in Tamil Nadu. The plant is expected to start production of Apple products by the end of June.
With both initiatives, the Tata Group is not only planning to assemble iPhones in India, but it is looking at setting up 100 exclusive Apple outlets across India through its electronic chain, Tata Croma.
The 44-acre Bangalore facility of Wistron has eight assembly lines and currently manufactures iPhone 14 and iPhone 12 models. Wistron is one of three Taiwanese iPhone manufacturers in India, along with Foxconn and Pegatron Corp. It has sought to diversify its business beyond thin-margin iPhone manufacturing into areas such as servers, agreeing to sell its iPhone production business in China to a competitor in 2020.
If Tata’s deal goes through, Wistron would continue as a service partner for iPhones in India. The Tata group is also expected to apply for production-linked incentives provided by the Centre to encourage the manufacturing of electronics products in the country.
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