As famous as movie stars and global leaders are a bunch of animal celebs that the world grew to positively adore.
Swedish furnishing major IKEA, part of the Ingka Group, is inviting its investment arm - Ingka Investments - to India, a senior company executive said during an interaction in New Delhi. The move suggests that the group is looking at India as a priority market. The areas of investments being considered by Ingka Investments could range from taking stake in companies across sectors such as renewables, recycling, real estate, and software which synergise with IKEA's broader retail requirements.
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.
Out of the total grant of $ 31.5 million, $ 16.1 million will be utilised towards empowering adolescents in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan to take responsibility over decisions impacting their lives and societies.
The first IKEA store in India is unlikely to come up during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government, which ends in May 2014, as the euro 25-billion Swedish furniture major takes "years" to set up shop in a new country after securing the necessary approvals.
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.
'This offers us many opportunities to meet people in different ways, and we will do this with full respect to India.'
India has overtaken the United States (US) to become the second-most sought-after manufacturing destination globally, driven mainly by cost competitiveness, according to real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield. China remains at number one position, the consultant said in its 2021 Global Manufacturing Risk Index, which assessed the most advantageous locations for global manufacturing among 47 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific (APAC). "India takes the second spot after China as the most sought-after manufacturing destination globally," Cushman and Wakefield said in a statement. The US is at third position, followed by Canada, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Lithuania, Thailand, Malaysia and Poland. In last year's report, the US was at second position while India ranked third.
Riding on e-commerce wave is the youngest state, which faces competition from neighbours.
The boom in organised retail will set the tone for major economic overhaul. The ripple effect will be improved supply chains, volume output, integration into global commerce, and higher tax collection, notes T N Ninan.
A total of Rs 396 crore has been mopped up, as on August 20 against Rs 407 crore collected in the same period last year. This was despite the expansion of the levy to online e-commerce players from this financial year.
Still, the earliest India will get to experience Apple online will be early 2020 and the company's first fully-owned signature store should be up around 2022 -- almost two decades after it had opened its first store worldwide, writes Nivedita Mookerji.
Two French sports retailers - Go Sport and Decathlon - are all set for battle royal to grab market share in India. Both are competing with sports goods makers Nike, Puma and Adidas and footwear major Bata. While Decathlon is already in India for some time, Go Sport opened its first super store in Navi Mumbai recently.
Recent easing of restrictions does not address the pain in the sector.
The rise of the mall in India, at a time when many in the United States are becoming debt-ridden white elephants.
Policy constraints may prevent many of the global retail giants from reaching their full potential.There are too many restrictions right now in the sector and policy makers lack clarity.
Nike has about 400 stores in India.
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