In a milestone that’s been more than a decade in the making, India’s first Ikea store will open today, bringing inexpensive Nordic-inspired furnishings and food to the world’s fastest-growing middle class.
Ikea expects to welcome as many as 6 million visitors a year to its 13-acre complex in Hitec City, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, India’s fourth-biggest city. The 400,000-square-foot showroom contains some 7,500 products, of which about 1,000 will sell for less than Rs.200 apiece. It’s the first of 25 stores Ikea plans to open across the nation by 2025.
Ikea’s launch comes at least 12 years after it started studying India, which is poised to overtake the US to become the world’s second-largest middle-class market by 2022. By then, sales of homewares and home furnishings will probably reach $15.3 billion from $12.9 billion last year, according to researcher Euromonitor International.
The world’s biggest furniture retailer invested more than Rs.1,000 crore on its first foray in India. It’s counting on new customers in industrialising nations bolstering sales growth in the face of brand fatigue and increased competition from online retailers, such as Amazon.com Inc and made.com, in established markets. Ikea added no new outlets last year in Sweden, where domestic sales were flat.
An Ikea is slated to open in early 2019 in Mumbai, followed by stores in urban Bengaluru and metropolitan Delhi. Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat and Pune are also targeted for stores.
Ikea expects to welcome as many as 6 million visitors a year to its 13-acre complex in Hitec City, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, India’s fourth-biggest city. The 400,000-square-foot showroom contains some 7,500 products, of which about 1,000 will sell for less than Rs.200 apiece. It’s the first of 25 stores Ikea plans to open across the nation by 2025.
Ikea’s launch comes at least 12 years after it started studying India, which is poised to overtake the US to become the world’s second-largest middle-class market by 2022. By then, sales of homewares and home furnishings will probably reach $15.3 billion from $12.9 billion last year, according to researcher Euromonitor International.
The world’s biggest furniture retailer invested more than Rs.1,000 crore on its first foray in India. It’s counting on new customers in industrialising nations bolstering sales growth in the face of brand fatigue and increased competition from online retailers, such as Amazon.com Inc and made.com, in established markets. Ikea added no new outlets last year in Sweden, where domestic sales were flat.
An Ikea is slated to open in early 2019 in Mumbai, followed by stores in urban Bengaluru and metropolitan Delhi. Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat and Pune are also targeted for stores.
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