Furniture retailer Ikea India on Thursday said it will shut down its store in Mumbai's R City Mall by the middle of this year and explore omnichannel formats in the city. The store at R City Mall, which is spread across 72,000 sq ft, opened in June 2022 to test the viability of small-format stores. The company's plan to shut down the store illustrates the concerns surrounding the viability of running a small-format store, given the rising rentals.
Patience has kept IKEA, the euro 27-billion Swedish retailer, going despite entry hurdles. So says Juvencio Maeztu, its chief executive officer for India.
Patience has kept IKEA, the euro 27-billion Swedish retailer, going despite entry hurdles. So says Juvencio Maeztu, its chief executive officer for India.
Swedish furniture giant IKEA is set to launch its first small-format city store at Worli, Mumbai, on Thursday. IKEA, which is part of the Ingka Group, had set up its first store in the country in Hyderabad in August 2018, which was followed by a store in Navi Mumbai in December last year. The company has an online presence across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Surat, Ahmedabad and Vadodara.
Next in line will be mega stores in cities such as Gurgaon and Bengaluru, though timelines for launch have not been specified yet. The company will also launch two more city-centre or smaller stores in 2021 in Mumbai to reach a wider audience.
The devil is always in the detail. Closer scrutiny of IKEA's India entry application makes it clear the celebrations may have been premature, as the euro 25-billion Scandinavian furniture major virtually wants an overhaul of the single-brand retail FDI policy.
Ikea not ready to open first India store yet, postpones launch to August 9. Around 45,000 visitors are expected at the store on the earlier launch day.
Store will directly employ 500-700 people, half of them women, and create 1,500 jobs indirectly
The company's plan was conveyed by IKEA chief executive officer Mikael Ohlsson, who met Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma in New Delhi on Monday, sources said.
Two months after the launch of its first store in the country, Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA says it has seen some surprising behaviour from shoppers and is tweaking its business model. Peter Betzel, chief executive of IKEA India, speaks to Bibhu Ranjan Mishra & Alnoor Peermohamed.
The company, which has employed 950 people directly and another 1,500 indirectly at its store in Hyderabad, plans to hire 15,000 in the coming years as it expands operations in India.
Pricing isn't at the heart of Ikea's strategy. It is understanding how Indians live.
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