IKEA set for launch in India tomorrow

Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea is all set to launch its first store in India at Hyderabad tomorrow. With an investment of about Rs 1,000 crores in the Hyderabad store, Ikea expects close to 7 million visitors every year.

Spread over acres with a floor size of 4 lakh sq feet in the heart of HITEC City, the Hyderabad store has 7,500 products including fully furnished rooms. 

A 1,000 seater restaurant is housed in the store offering Indian and Swedish cuisine at affordable prices. 

The Hyderabad IKEA store will have a direct staff strength of 950 employees while 1500 would be employed indirectly in services. In an official statement, IKEA said around 1,000 of those products will be available for under Rs 200 and 20 percent of the products sold will be locally sourced. 

Ikea plans to open stores next in Mumbai in 2019 followed by Bengaluru and Gurugram. The company plans to expand to cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata with a target of setting stores in 25 cities by 2025.