Apple hire hints European retail expansion intent

Apple has plans to continue expansion of its high street retail presence in Europe and has hired a leading agent to manage mall matters.

The company has hired Chris Braithwaite, a partner at Cushman & Wakefield, to become senior director of European real estate at Apple, Retail Week informs.

Braithwaite has already played a central role in Apple’s retail story since 2005, when the company instructed Cushman & Wakefield to act on its behalf.

Since then there’s been 16 stores opened up in the UK. Three in Switzerland and more in Italy and Germany. Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, confirmed the company intends opening its first store in France in the holiday (Christmas) quarter.

Oppenheimer also said: “We remain on track to open a total of about 25 stores during fiscal 2009 and to complete the remodel of 100 stores to our new design.”

Apple’s retail segment’s firing on all cylinders, the chain attracted $1.5 billion of revenue during the June quarter and sold 492,000 Macs, “about half the Macs sold in our stores during the June quarter were to customers who never owned a Mac before,” Oppenheimer said.

Apple opened six new stores during the last quarter, it now has 258 stores. With an average of 254 stores open during the quarter, average revenue per store was $5.9 million. These stores hosted 38.6 million visitors during the quarter.

Meanwhile, Microsoft remains on track to open its first two stores in the US this autumn.