Swedish furniture giant IKEA to open first Indian outlet in Hyderabad on 9 August; to employ 50% women

Hyderabad: Swedish furniture maker IKEA aid that its first Indian outlet will be launched here on 9 August. The strategically-located, 13-acre store here is close to HITEC City, the IT hub. The next store will come up in Mumbai, where the company has purchased 24 acre land. “We will be joined (on the opening day) by key IKEA leaders, including IKEA Group, CEO Jesper Brodin,” IKEA said in a release. IKEA Retail India had earlier said it decided to move the date to 9 August from 19 July as it needs some more time to live up to its expected quality commitments towards customers and co-workers. [caption id=“attachment_1027639” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] IKEA store. Representational image. AFP[/caption] The company was scheduled to open its first store in India next week on 19 July. According to the company, its main priority is to create an inspiring and safe experience for both customers and coworkers. “Opening the first Indian IKEA store in Hyderabad means a lot to IKEA and we want to offer the best possible meeting with IKEA for the many Indian customers,” said IKEA Retail India CEO Peter Betzel, according to a report earlier. IKEA’s Hyderabad store has come up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. This would provide 1,000 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs at the store, and 50 percent of the employees would be women. The company officials had earlier said that the store, spread over 13 acres with a built-up space of 4,00,000 square feet, will feature over 70,00 IKEA products of which almost 2,000 will be priced below Rs 200. The store will also have a 1,000-seater restaurant which is IKEA’s largest in over 400 stores it has globally.. Headquartered in The Netherlands, IKEA designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories, and is considered to be the largest furniture retailer in the world. The company officials said last year that they plan to open 25 stores in India by 2025. The next store will come up in Mumbai in 2019. This will be bigger than the Hyderabad store with five lakh square feet. --With inputs from agencies