After a near-100% growth in sales last year, Apple is looking to expand its retail presence in India, the push coming at a time when it widens local manufacturing of iPhones in the country. The expansion will be led by its exclusive retail partners even as the company finalises work on its self-owned flagship store in Mumbai.

Apple-exclusive retailers say sales have already crossed pre-Covid levels, and expansion is on the cards. “We will open around seven new stores across north and west India,” Baljinder Paul Singh, director of Unicorn Infosolutions, told TOI.

Unicorn is the company’s largest retail partner in India, and currently runs 29 sales stores and 21 service centres. “Business has been strong, and demand for Apple’s products is healthy across the portfolio of smartphones, MacBooks, iPads and watch,” Singh said.

Research firm IDC said Apple sold nearly 2.8 million units (estimated) iPhones in 2020 at a growth rate of 93%, despite the market being impacted due to corona restrictions. “Aspiration for Apple brand remains strong, and we expect the company to log in similar numbers in 2021,” Navkendar Singh, research director at IDC, said.

He said sales for Apple had seen a massive surge in the second half of 2020, especially as work- and educate-from-home phenomenon was the norm.

“Also, disposable incomes were diverted towards trusted luxury products as people were not travelling, nor eating out, or spending on fuel. Devices such as iPhone11 and XR were in great demand as their prices became very attractive after the company introduced the flagship iPhone12 series,” Singh added.

Kapil Mendiratta, CEO of Future World retail stores, said the company is planning to expand to 30 stores against 10 stores and six service centres at present. “We want to expand into tier-2 and -3 towns.”

The growth is also fuelled by easy purchase plans such as EMI options, cash backs and special incentive schemes with credit card companies.