Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), which manufactures Apple Inc’s iPad, plans to increase staffing at its employee-owned retail outlets by more than 60 percent over the next two months as it expands in China’s smaller cities.
Wan Ma Ben Teng (WMBT, 萬馬奔騰), the retailer whose stores are owned and operated by Foxconn employees, seeks to hire more than 400 people, taking the total to about 1,000, Louis Woo (胡國輝), chairman of Taiwan-based Foxconn’s retail division, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
INCENTIVE
Foxconn, which also makes Hewlett-Packard Co computers, offers training, loans and subsidies for employees to open their own electronics stores. Founder and chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) is looking to WMBT to provide an incentive to workers on its manufacturing line and to help clients sell products in smaller cities.
“It’s a measure to expand our offering to customers and tap into China’s growing domestic demand,” Woo said.
Woo’s division, called NC-IH, also operates electronics outlets in larger cities through Media Markt (萬得城電器) stores and an online shopping Web site.
Wan Ma Ben Teng, which means “Full Steam Ahead” in Mandarin, has more than 100 stores and will expand to 500 by the end of the year, Woo said. The hirings will help expand WMBT to 12 Chinese provinces from seven, he said.
Foxconn last year doubled wages in Shenzhen, its southern Chinese manufacturing hub, and began moving production further inland near its employees’ hometowns after a series of suicides drew criticism from labor groups.
POSTINGS
WMBT seeks to hire personnel managers, store clerks, accountants and sales directors in cities including Hefei, Wuhan and Yantai, according to job postings on 51job.com, which Woo confirmed.
The outlets will sell electronics from different brands, including products not made by Foxconn, Woo said.
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