Swedish giant IKEA on Thursday opened its first store in India. The debut comes five years after it received approval to invest in the country's single-brand retail sector. IKEA has left no stone unturned to become a major success in India, from the food menu to its "do-it-yourself" (DIY) assembly model,it has localised itself to go with the country's flavour.
IKEA reportedly had surveyed around 800 homes in India to study the living pattern and the Hyderabad store launch came after 12 vigorous research on the Indian household.
Below we have listed down 10 things which you can't afford to miss regarding the Swedish firm.
1. The store in Hyderabad is the first of 25 such outlets planned to be set up in India by 2025. In 2013, IKEA received nod from the government to invest Rs 10,500 crore in single-brand retail.
2. Out of the total outlay of Rs 10,500 crore, IKEA has so far invested Rs 4,500 crore in its different projects in India.It has invested Rs 1,000 crore on the Hyderabad store alone, which would have a range of around 7,500 products.
3. The Hyderabad store is spread over 13 acres of land and has a built up area of 4 lakh sq ft.
4. Besides retail, IKEA said it will also enter e-commerce segment in India by next year, besides exploring small format stores as part of its India expansion plans.
5. Rajani Venugopal was the first customer in India.
6. Now after Hyderabad, IKEA plans to launch its second store in Mumbai, followed by Bengaluru and then Delhi-NCR.
7. IKEA has employed 950 people directly and another 1,500 indirectly at its store here, plans to hire 15,000 in the coming years as it expands operations in India.
8. Listing out its hiring strategy, IKEA at the launch said that it has adopted a "non-negotiable" approach to hire 50 per cent women at all levels in India, even "including forklift drivers and assembling co-workers".
9. IKEA has also cleared that the firm will provide delivery and assembly service to its customers who are not familiar with the DIY (do it yourself) concept.
10. Apart from the store, eyes are set on IKEA's cafetaria also which has 1,000 seats with a wide range of Indian dishes.
