After planning for at least 12 years, Swedish furnishing giant is finally opening its first store in India. This first IKEA store is a 4 lakh square feet spread over 13-acre complex, all set to open on August 9 in Hyderabad. The Swedish multinational has invested more than Rs 1000 crore in this project?and will have a direct staff strength of about 950 people, and indirect staff of up to 1500 people.
Indians are excited to see this new store as it will be open from 10 am to 11 pm, and the company itself is expecting as many as 60 lakh visitors a year. This is not the only surprising feature, but the store will have its globally-largest restaurant that will be a 1000 seater with many options in the Indian cuisine.?
"We want to be accessible and from tomorrow we will be accessible in Hyderabad. Now we will try our best to speed up our expansion to move quicker than normally we do in IKEA," IKEA Group CEO Jesper Brodin told TOI. After Hyderabad, IKEA's second store would be in Mumbai next year followed by Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR.
image: bloomberg quint
The store is spread across 13 acres and will display nearly 7,500 products. Around 1,000 of those products will be available for?under?Rs 200, IKEA said in an official statement.
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The store will exhibit two full homes that reflect ¡®Life at Home in Hyderabad¡¯, besides different room sets based on different parts of the house like?bedroom, kitchen, children¡¯s room and living room. It will also have a market hall where one will find home kitchen utensils and accessories, textiles, rugs, lighting, decoration,?stationary?and live plants.
image: twitter/ikeasverige
¡°In terms of the products, the company will be 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. Customers will also be able to buy global classics like the BILLY bookcase, KLIPPAN sofa, LACK table and PO?NG armchair among others,¡± IKEA said.
IKEA¡¯s Hyderabad store will have the company¡¯s largest restaurant globally. The 1,000-seater restaurant will have several vegetarian options, including Indian cuisine, on the menu.?
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¡°The restaurant will offer 50 per cent Swedish specialities like salmon and chicken and vegetarian meatballs and 50 per cent local delicacies like biryani, samosas, dal?makhni?in the case of Hyderabad,¡± the company said. The Swedish retailer added the food would be "very affordable" -- a plate of samosas will cost Rs 10.