Ikea operator to invest over ₹7,000 cr in India

Earlier in the day, the company raised €400 million ( 3,500-crore) INGKA center in Gurugram, which will be built by the second half of 2025. After this there will be a similar center in Noida.

The 1.7 million sq ft Gurugram center will have an Ikea store, other retail outlets for global and local brands, edutainment activities, a food park and 320,000 sq ft of commercial office space, spread over nine floors, the company said. The Ikea store will be spread over 250,000 square feet and offer over 9,000 home furnishing products. The company is aiming to increase the number of Gurugram stores to 20 million people annually.

However, the Noida center will take some time to develop, the company said, without giving a time frame.

Ingca Centers operates 45 shopping centers in 15 countries serving the needs of 370 million visitors each year with products from over 3,000 brands.

Despite India’s massive adoption of online shopping during the pandemic, Ingca executives remain confident that consumers will return to stores and spend more time in physical locations. “We believe in meeting people and we focus on physical meeting (spaces). That doesn’t mean we’re not using technology. We’ll be online too,” said Inca Centers’ global expansion and Director of Development Jan Christensen said in an interview.

Christensen declined to elaborate on expansion plans for India, but said the company is very positive about the market.

However, Ikea India chief executive and chief sustainability officer Suzanne Pulverer said that Delhi is a “huge” market, and “two centers with many people will not be enough”, hinting at the possibility of setting up smaller city center stores. in NCR in the near future. In February 2021, Ingka said it had acquired land in Noida for an “Ikea-anchored retail destination”.

Last month, Ikea opened a smaller format city center store in Mumbai. It has three large format furniture and home stores in Hyderabad, Navi Mumbai and Bengaluru, and online services in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bengaluru and Surat. Two city centers in Mumbai opened in December 2021 and July 2022.

On plans to open more Ikea stores and shopping centers in India, Pulverer said the company is constantly exploring different variants. “We are constantly exploring whether it is centres, standalone (stores) in malls or individual small stores. Our expansion plans are focused on the three markets we operate in and Delhi. Of course, India is much bigger than that. It is a big task to expand and cover all the people in India.”

“It is not possible to open large format stores everywhere. We will have those and especially for big cities like Delhi we need at least two. Then we want to supplement it with city stores. Maybe we have order points where you can’t buy but plan your home, room or kitchen and then order online.”

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