Buoyed by the rapid growth of the retail sector, leading Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA plans to increase its investments in the country. IT minister KTR has launched the IKEA store in Hyderabad.
On the eve of the launch of the first India store, the company officials said they plan to open over 40 stores across different formats as against 25 stores planned earlier. The furniture giant had earlier announced plans to invest Rs 10,500 crore to open 25 stores by 2025.
IKEA is opening first store almost five years after it received government approval in 2013 to invest Rs 10,500 crore in the country to open retail stores.Hyderabad store has come up over 13 acres in the heart of HITEC City, the information technology hub. The 400,000 sq ft. facility, which has come up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore, houses the largest restaurant for IKEA anywhere, with a seating capacity of 1,000, serving Swedish and Indian dishes.
The store will offer 7,500 affordable home furnishing products under one roof with more than 1,000 products priced under 200 rupees.
IKEA has recruited 950 employees for the Hyderabad store and 50 per cent of them are women in tune with its policy. It plans to recruit 15,000 people in the country in the next few years.
Founded in 1943 by late Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA currently has 403 IKEA stores in 49 countries with a sales volume of 38.3 billion euros. According to the company 936 million customers visited its stores in FY17 and more than 2.3 billion people visited IKEA online.
