With Apple’s plan to open company-owned stores on the back-burner pending government approval, the iPhone maker is going with the next best option: bigger franchisee outlets at key locations in metropolitan cities. These 5-6 franchisee-run outlets will each be at least three times larger than the current, 1,000 sq ft stores and may even go up to 5,000 sq ft. The ‘Flagship Apple Premium Reseller’ outlets will become a “stepdown” version of the iconic company-owned Apple Retail Stores and will come up in “extremely prominent locations” as anchor shops in malls and high-street shopping areas. Currently, Apple has around 150 franchisee-run Apple Premium Reseller stores in India. Opening of the new premium franchisee-run Apple stores will be an added business advantage for the signage companies whose activities involve in in-store graphic projects.
