Apple manufacturer Wistron said to be closing down in India

Wistron, Apple's assembly partner for the iPhone SE, is allegedly preparing to wind down most of its operations in India, with the company rumored to withdraw most of itself from the country over the next year.

As an Apple supplier, Wistron has been working within India for over 15 years, but that is apparently soon to change. Rather than continue to build out business in India like Foxconn is doing, the Taiwanese firm is said to be moving out.

According to sources cited by Hindu BusinessLine, Wistron will be mostly withdrawing from India, and will probably approach the National Company Law Tribunal and the Registrar of Companies to dissolve its operations within a year.

The effort has already seemingly started, with Tata Electronics seeking to take control of Wistron's Karnataka iPhone production facility, which is also Wistron's main operation in India.

The factory became a problem for Wistron in December 2020, after employees rioted over allegations of shorted pay. The incident led to Apple putting Wistron on probation.

Sources claim that once the takeover of the iPhone arm is complete, Wistron will start the process of winding down.

It is also said that Wistron will also wait for more subsidy payments from the Mobile PLI scheme set up by the government to encourage production, before shutting down.

While Wistron employs over 12,000 people in India, not all will lose their jobs over time. The majority of Wistron's employees work under the iPhone unit that Tata is in the process of acquiring.

Wistron's other interests in the country include firms in the Internet of Things market, as well as attempts to attract more notebook production and work in the electric vehicle space. However, it now seems that these won't necessarily come to fruition, at least not in India.

There will still be some elements of Wistron active in India despite the winding-down situation. Sources say the only operations that will probably still exist in India will be its services business, set up to repair and maintain Apple products.