The Apple Surgeon

A barely educated geek repairs Apple devices in Bengaluru and plans to set up 50 such centres across India
The Apple Surgeon

Harish Agarwal is a young man from Indore who has studied only till Class VIII, but that hasn’t hampered him from climbing the ladder of success. He runs his company called ‘applerepairs’ in Bengaluru that, as the name suggests, repairs Apple products. With a turnover of Rs 3 crore, Agarwal is now on the threshhold of expanding his Apple repairing business to Mumbai and Gurgaon, and intends to start an exclusive training centre.

“We will train people for chip-level services for 45 days and teach youngsters to repair Apple products and solve problems faced by users. By 2016, we will expand to 50 centres in India through franchises. I am expecting an investment of Rs 5 crore by next year. The response has been overwhelming and we will establish centres in Pune, Mumbai, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Chennai,” says Agarwal.

How does he run his repair business so successfully? “A MacBook whose showroom price is Rs 90,000 is available to me at the wholesaler’s price of Rs 65,000. Each part in this device such as the Logic Board is replaced at a cost of Rs 56,000 for the customer, LCD panel for Rs 30,000, keyboard panel for Rs 18,000, hard disc for Rs 12,500 and charger for Rs 6,500. If you add all these charges, it works to about Rs 1,10,000. So I get a net profit of Rs 45,000 per product,” he says.

In the last three years, Agarwal has built up a client base of 2,000 customers. Some come from Singapore and the US. “They have reposed their faith and I do my best to resolve their device problems. I have imported an innovative equipment from China to identify and replace damaged chips, which are replaced by chips from old boards. If we cannot repair, we replace them,” says the 30-year-old.

Agarwal grabs any new Apple device as soon as it is in the market and dismantles it to see what’s inside.

Success did not come easily for Agarwal. “My father lost his job in a factory when it closed down. I started working in an electrical shop that doubled up as a PCO till 2001. Those days were hard and I had to supplement the family income. Then I joined a computer sales and service company and for the next five years, worked non-stop. I even funded my elder brother’s engineering education,” he says.

In 2007, he bought a rundown computer and took it apart. That was his first lesson in repairing. Then he opened a small shop for computer repairs and underwent two certified courses. “I ran this business for four years but had to close it because I had given credit to many people. In 2011, I came to Bengaluru but could not get a job as I did not know English. My brother got me a job in a mobile repairing shop. That was the turning point in my life as I learned to repair mobile phones and laptops,” he says.

Then one day Agarwal came across an Apple laptop, and he fell in love with it. “My passion for Apple is so deep that my whole time and energy is spent in studying their devices and finding innovative ways of repairing them. My life begins and ends with this,” he says.

Driven by his love for Apple, he set up an Apple repair centre in Koramangala in 2012 with Rs 2 lakh. “That was the best decision of my life,” he says. “I have a staff strength of 18 trained graduate technicians. Since Apple does not provide spare parts, our policy is to buy new products, dismantle them and use the parts to repair customer’s devices,” he says.

“Once in Mumbai I took a selfie outside the Taj Mahal Hotel, but in just one year I stayed and had a business dinner there.” he says.

Tech Tick

■ Agarwal’s Apple devices repairing firm has a turnover of Rs 3 crore. By 2016, he expects an investment of Rs 5 crore to expand his business to 50 pan-India centres.

■ He has a client base of 2,000 customers with some flying in from Singapore and the US .

■ He is an Apple geek and buys latest Apple devices to dismantle them and see what’s inside.

■ His team comprises 18 technicians who repair Apple devices.

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The New Indian Express
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