Wistron's iPhone unit to reopen soon

Probation imposed by Apple on new business, however, will continue

Bengaluru: Apple's contract manufacturer Wistron is planning to reopen its Karnataka facility in the next few days though the probation imposed on it by Apple in receiving new business will continue.

According to multiple sources in the know, Wistron continues to assemble the products of Apple as before. However, the Cupertino-based telecom giant is reviewing the processes of Wistron in India before giving more business to the contract manufacturer.

"Wistron continues to assemble what they are currently assembling. These products are iPhone 7 and second-generation iPhone SE devices. The probation continues on the new business," an official source said who wished not to be quoted.

On December 12, temporary workers employed at Wistron's Narasapura facility in Bengaluru vandalised the factory premises over non-payment of regular and overtime dues by the company. According to a filing by Taiwan Stock Exchange, Wistron has pegged the extent of damages caused at its Kolar plant in the range of Rs 26-52 crore.

Post this incident, Apple has placed Taiwanese tech giant Wistron as it was found that the contract manufacturer failed to implement proper working hour management processes. It has also said that Apple will not give any new business to Wistron till labour issues are resolved. The tech giant also hired auditors to investigate the matter.

Last week, Large and Medium Industries Minister of Karnataka Jagadish Shettar had said that Wistron would resume production in its Kolar facility soon.

"Karnataka has been working hard to create a supportive environment for industries. It is a matter of happiness that the re-appointment process has started and the production is ready to resume," Shettar had said in a statement. When contacted, Wistron officials refused to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, Apple said its global product launches have not been impacted due to the labour incident in Karnataka as most of its new products continue to be manufactured in China. "Apple assembles three products in India.

These are not assembled right in the beginning. They are assembled only after launch. So, there is no delay in the launch of new products in any way," another source said. Apple considers India as one of the major geographies to ramp up its market share in the intensely competitive global telecom market.

Though the share of the US-based company remained minuscule as of now, it is devising various methods to increase its share.

In the first quarter ended December, Apple's CEO Tim Cook had said that the company was happy with the growth trajectory in India. "India is one of those (markets), where our share is quite low, it did improve from the year-ago quarter, our business roughly doubled over that period of time, so we feel very good about the trajectory," Cook had said.

"We are doing a number of things in the area, we put the online store there for example, and last quarter was the full first quarter of the online store and that has gotten a great reaction to it and has helped us achieve the results that we got to last quarter. We are also going in there with retail stores in the future and so we look to that to be another great initiative, and we continue to develop the channel as well," he had added. Apple follows October-September financial year cycle.