Foxconn boosts hiring at China employee-run stores

Foxconn Technology Group,the manufacturerApple Incs 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 Chinas smaller cities, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

Wan Ma Ben Teng, 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, Chairman of Taipei-based Foxconns retail division, told the reporter.

Foxconn, which also makes Hewlett-Packard Co computers, offers training, loans and subsidies for employees to open their own electronics stores, the report said.

The companys chairman, Terry Gou, is looking to Wan Ma Ben Teng to provide an incentive to workers on its manufacturing line and help clients sell products in Chinas smaller cities, it reported.

Its a measure to expand our offering to customers and tap into Chinas growing domestic demand, Woo said. Woos division also operates electronics outlets in larger cities throug online shopping website, it said.

Wan Ma Ben Teng, which means Full Steam Ahead in Mandarin, currently has more than 100 stores and will expand to 500 by the end of 2011, the report citedWoo as saying. The hiring will help expandthe retailers businessto 12 provinces from seven, he said.

In 2010, Foxconn doubled wages inits southern Chinese manufacturing hubin Shenzhen, and began migrating production toprovinces whichnear its employees hometowns, the report said.