Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA Group has bought a piece of land in Hyderabad, as a part of its expansion strategy in India, it said on Friday. Financial details of the purchase remained undisclosed but the firm said the 13-acre property is strategically located close to the IT hub in Hyderabad’s HITEC city.
IKEA said it plans to launch 25 stores in India including cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi NCR in the long-term.
“India is a very promising market for IKEA as it offers us the opportunity to source, retail, conduct CSR initiatives through IKEA Foundation and empower social entrepreneurs. Our focus now is to bring all of it together in Hyderabad as we have bought our first land to build an IKEA store. We will bring a unique shopping experience through our inspiring stores offering affordable home furnishing products," said Juvencio Maeztu, CEO, IKEA India.
IKEA Group offers furniture, accessories, bathrooms and kitchen products through retail stores. It has 323 stores in 28 countries and more than 45 stores are run by franchisees outside the IKEA Group.
"It’s a priority for the state government to attract global brands which can bring modern processes, global know how and innovation. We believe that IKEA will work as a catalyst in our development plans. The government is committed to provide the necessary support to IKEA for its future expansion plans in the state,” commented K Chandrashekar Rao, chief minister of Telangana.
IKEA has been sourcing products from India for almost three decades and now aims to double the volume by 2020. In India, around 45,000 people work directly for 50 IKEA suppliers and about 400,000 in the extended supply chain.
It is one of the few large global retailers to have committed big investments in single brand consumer retail in India after the previous government opened the market to foreign retailers.
