IKEA opens its first store in India in Hyderabad, 10 things to know

Six years after Swedish furniture maker IKEA got FDI approval to set up shop in India, it has opened its first store in Hyderabad. Located at Hyderabad’s tech hub Hitech City, the store is 4,00,000 square feet large and is spread over 13 acres.

Here are 10 things to know about the IKEA store:

Store information

The store, spread over an area of 13 acres, will remain open 365 days of the year between 10am to 11pm. It sells a wide range of home furnishing products.

Product range

From utensils, potted plants, chandeliers to beds, cupboards and storage boxes, the IKEA Hyderabad store has a range of 7,500 products, spread across two large floors. Of this, there are 500 sustainable products promoting sustainable life at Home and all textiles made from 100% cotton, while all lights are 100% LED.

It also has brought its global classics like the BILLY bookcase, KLIPPAN sofa, LACK table and POäNG armchair among others.  

Made in India

As part of India’s FDI norms, 20% of products sold are locally sourced, while 1,000 products are made in India.  The company is bringing its classic IKEA range along with a small percentage of locally relevant products for the Indian market like masala boxes, pressure cookers, tawas, idli makers, colourful sheets and mattresses made with coconut fibre centre.

However, IKEA has been sourcing from India for its global stores for more than 30 years.

Affordability

IKEA is harping on affordability to capture the Indian market, which is known to be price sensitive. From items starting at as low as Rs 15, IKEA’s Hyderabad store has 1,000 products priced below Rs 200.

Product assembly and delivery

Ikea is known for selling its products in a dismantled form, which require to be assembled after they are bought. For assistance in this, it will be offering in-house and outsourced assembly, an option to pick up and avail a delivery service as well.

IKEA has also partnered with UrbanClap for furniture assembly service. As part of this collaboration, consumers buying certain furniture from IKEA can book furniture assembly services via the UrbanClap app or the website. IKEA will contribute in the training of carpenters on UrbanClap’s platform, skilling them to become professional IKEA assemblers.

IKEA restaurant

The store will house a 1,000-seater restaurant, which is IKEA’s largest restaurant. The café will offer coffee, bakes, frozen yogurt and many more for purchase.

The IKEA restaurant will offer 50% Swedish specialities like salmon and chicken and vegetarian meatballs and 50% local delicacies like biryani, samosas, dal makhni, in the case of Hyderabad. The food will also be at affordable prices. For example, a plate of samosas will cost Rs. 10, while a salad plate will come for Rs 50.

The restaurant area also houses a kids’ play area named Småland where customers can leave their children while shopping.

India Investments

In 2013, IKEA announced that it will invest Rs 10,500 crore in India, out of which around Rs 1,000 crore would be spent on each store. So far, IKEA has spent around half the amount.

For the Hyderabad store, IKEA has spent more than Rs 1,000 crore including land, construction and capital goods.

“As we see big opportunities in India, we believe that we will increase this investment as we continue our expansion in India in the future,” it said in a statement.

Employees

The Hyderabad IKEA store employs 950 co-workers in Hyderabad directly and 1,500 indirectly in services and expects to host close to 7 million visitors each year.

For each store it opens, IKEA plans to have between 800-1,000 co-workers, which will be a mix of internationally experienced workers and locally recruited. About 1,500 indirectly engage in services etc. which makes a total of about 2,300 employees per store.

Gender Diversity

“We are committed to have 50% women managers and co-workers in our organisation at all levels,” claims IKEA.

In IKEA globally, 44% of co-workers are women, while in India, 37% of the workforce are women today.

At the Hyderabad store, it currently has 8 female forklift drivers and has recruited around 100 girls from the DISHA pilot project.

IKEA’s future in India

After the first store in Hyderabad, IKEA will launch its online presence, store and touch points in Mumbai in 2019. This will be followed by Bengaluru and Gurugram in the following years.

In the next phase of expansion, it will move to other cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata with a multichannel.

By 2025, it is looking at more than 25 touchpoints across various cities, including new ones like Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata.

It has also acquired four land sites in first-priority markets like Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka Delhi/NCR and continues to look for suitable sites in different cities. Its plan is to open retail stores in 40+ cities across the country.