Speaking at the occasion, Juvencio Maeztu, CEO, Ikea India, said, “This is a big milestone for us today and all of us are very proud that the first IKEA store in India seems very close to reality now!”
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He said although IKEA retail was making its presence in India now, IKEA as a company has been sourcing from India for 30 years with 50 suppliers and about 400,000 people in its “extended supply chain”.
The store will occupy 400,000 square feet in HiTec City in Hyderabad, stocking over 7,500 furniture and home furnishing products, and featuring a massive restaurant for 1,000 people serving Swedish and Indian cuisine. It also plans to double its sourcing from India to 600 million euros by 2020. The cities will be Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Surat.
Ikea India CEO Juvencio Maeztu said the firm has already bought land to open its Mumbai store and is talking to the Karnataka and Delhi governments for the same. Hyderabad store will be spread around 4 lakh sqft and its construction is expected to get completed by 2017. The new store will hire 500 direct co workers and another 1500 in providing services around the store. “We expect to have more than 4 million visitors a year”. “This will increase efficiency of companies thereby offering lower prices to consumers”, he said.
He said while the customers could touch and feel the products at the store, they will also have the option of ordering the same online. The sourcing avenues from India were being expanded and as against largely textiles so far, sourcing is now expected to happen across other product categories too.
IKEA now has 50 suppliers with 45,000 direct employees and 4 lakh people in extended supply chain in India and has been sourcing from the country for the last 30 years.
Globally, Ikea has over 328 stores in 28 countries.
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Ikea was one of the first few companies in India to be allowed 100 per cent FDI in retail.
