Apple Appoints Michel Coulomb To Lead India Operations
Apple Appoints Michel Coulomb To Lead India Operations

Apple has appointed an expat to lead the Indian operations after its erstwhile country head Sanjay Kaul put in his papers. Company veteran, Michel Coulomb, who was the managing director for South Asia operations at Apple, has been appointed the chief of Indian operation with immediate effect.

The changes were announced by Apple’s head of emerging markets Hugues Asseman on Monday during Apple India’s annual sales conference in Goa, two senior industry executives said. Coulomb with report to Asseman .

Coulomb, a French national, has been with Apple for over 14 years and considered a key executive of CEO Tim Cook. He has earlier led Apple’s operations in Middle East, Tukey and Africa before moving into Singapore last year as chief of South Asia.

In fact, Apple had earlier two Indian executives leading the Indian operations Maneesh Dhir who was responsible for growing the Apple business to over $ one billion size and moved out in 2015 after five years stint. Sanjay Kaul, who was then heading sales at Apple India, was subsequently promoted as the India managing director.

Analysts have predicted the pace of growth in the current fiscal to remain sluggish due to tepid demand for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and the contribution of older and cheaper models to sales. According to Apple India’s filings at the Registrar of Companies, sales rose 17% to Rs 11,618.69 crore in FY17 from Rs 9,937.07. In the five years to FY16, the maker of the iPhone and Mac computers grew at about 40% annually.

Apple’s average selling price (ASP) of iPhones have plunged and industry executives said Apple headquarters were unsatisfied with the slowing down of growth in India and higher demand of older iPhones sold at huge discount.

An apple executive said “Apple had a plan to sell ten million iPhones in India by 2017 under an internal strategy called ‘Project Everest’ which was made along with consultancy BCG. However, the company can barely sell around 3.5-4 million iPhones this year. Asseman is on-ground executive and is expected to push growth as well reverse the plunging ASP”.

 

 
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