Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA, whose first India store in Hyderabad is celebrating five years, has from the learnings of the 4.8 lakh sq ft facility and those in Mumbai and Bengaluru, fine tuned its expansion to one that will see it go for stores of different formats and ramp up omni-channel presence.
“We are exploring different formats, smaller size like a city store or may be even shops to penetrate market, get closer to the people. These will be complimented by online [presence] and services,” IKEA India CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer Susanne Pulverer said.
New facilities had already been announced in Gurugram and Noida as part of foray into National Capital Region (NCR). Stores in Pune and Chennai are on the cards, but they will be part of the next tranche of investment in India as the ₹10,500 crore initially committed will be exhausted when the Noida facility is in place after 2027, she said during a media interaction at the store here on Monday.
The Hyderabad store, which showcases over 9,000 products, and since opening in August 2018 had 175 million visitations, will remain the flagship with potential to emerge as an export hub and likely to break even in one year, Ms. Pulverer said.
On new stores, she said with land scarce the emphasis will be on more efficient use of land/space and many of them stores are likely to be smaller, compact as well as under different formats such as anchor unit in malls. However, there will be no compromise on customer offerings, she added.
“As we enter the next phase of our omni-channel expansion in India, we lead by being more affordable, accessible and sustainable for the many people,” she told a programme earlier to mark the five years of retailing by IKEA in India.
Market Manager-IKEA Hyderabad Christophe Adrien said from 1,000 co-workers initially, headcount at the store here now was 628, with the facility also providing trained workforce to some of the new stores.
In a video message, played during the programme, Ingka Group CEO and president Jesper Brodin said “we are trying to expand even faster.”
Addressing the gathering, Industries and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan urged IKEA to open another store in the city and impress upon suppliers to source from the furniture park near Hyderabad. He called upon the firm to play an anchor role in the academy proposed by the Retailers Association of India here, engage with prototyping centre T-Works as well as help promote cotton grown in Telangana globally.
