IKEA's first Indian store launched in Hyderabad

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Thu, Aug 09, 2018, 01:35 PM

IKEAs first Indian store launched in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Aug 09: The world's largest furniture retailer, IKEA launches its first store in India. The long-awaited Ikea store opened on Thursday in a 13-acre complex in the heart of HITEC City, Hyderabad.

Nestled between tall office buildings and under-construction sites, the 400,000-square-foot outlet is the culmination of years of research and an investment of Rs1,000 crore ($146 million).

IKEA expects this store to attract 7 million visitors annually. Towards this, the company has localized and tweaked its offerings.

IKEA products: IKEA is offering a variety of lip-smacking delicacies - the 'Hyderabadi biryani' is priced at Rs. 99. Meat chicken balls are for at Rs. 129, and salmon fillet are for Rs. 399. A range of products are on sale: beds, chairs, cookware, mattresses, curtains, tables, lighting, kitchen trolley, ovens, stuffed toys, and hangers, among many other things.

IKEA prices: IKEA's newly launched Indian website showed popular products at lower prices than in the United States. The white variation of its best-selling Billy bookcase is cheaper by a fifth and the dark-grey Ektorp sofa is priced 30 percent lower, stated news agency Reuters in a report.

IKEA in Hyderabad: IKEA Hyderabad store will be open every day from 10 am to 11:00 pm, according to the website of IKEA India. The address of the store is: IKEA HITEC City, Raidurg, Serilingampally, Mandal, Survey no. 83/1, Plot No.25, 26, Part 29 Panmaqtha, Rangareddy, Hyderabad, 500032, Telangana.

IKEA history: 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.

IKEA management: "We have a long-term commitment to India, which is an important market for us," news agency Press Trust of India (PT) quoted IKEA Group CEO Jesper Brodin, as saying.

IKEA investment in India: Out of the total outlay of Rs. 10,500 crore, the company has invested Rs. 1,000 crore in the Hyderabad store alone, which would have a range of around 7,500 products, stated PTI. The store is spread over 13 acres of land and has a built up area of 4 lakh sq ft. Patrik Antoni, Deputy CEO, IKEA India, told reporters that they have so far invested Rs. 4,500 crore including in land.

IKEA local sourcing: IKEA India boss Peter Betzel was quoted in a Reuters report as saying that products and materials that IKEA was currently looking to source more of locally, were textile, metal and wood such as bamboo and acacia.

India retail market: India's retail sector is $600 billion and is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2020, said Ramesh Abhishek, secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), on Wednesday, in a report by news agency Indo-Asian News Service.

IKEA growth expectation: Market researcher GlobalData forecast a compound annual growth rate of nearly 11 per cent for IKEA over 2016-2021 in the local furniture and home-improvement market, reaching Rs. 4,97,930 crore.

"Even though winning customers in the highly fragmented, untapped and unorganized Indian market will not be easy for the Swedish home furniture giant, it will surely accelerate a shift to organized space (market)," GlobalData said in a note, in the Reuters report.

IKEA's competitors: Competition in India includes startups Pepperfry and UrbanLadder, which offer free delivery and furniture assembled on site at no extra cost.