IKEA, Sweden based home furnishing store, opened yesterday in Hyderabad. It is located in the midst of IT hub at walkable distance from Raheja mindspace, hi-tech city. The road leading from hi-tech city to biodiversity on which IKEA store is located was seen having very heavy traffic yesterday as Hyderabadiis visited the store on day-1 in huge numbers.
IKEA:
IKEA is a Swedish-founded multinational group. It designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories. It has been the world’s largest furniture retailer since at least 2008.It was founded in Sweden in 1943. The company’s name is an acronym that consists of the initials of Ingvar Kamprad (name of founder), Elmtaryd (the farm where he grew up), and Agunnaryd (his hometown in Småland, southern Sweden)
IKEA Hyderabad:
This is IKEA’s first ever store in India. It is located on a 13 acre site in the midst of Hyderabad’s IT hub. It spans over 4 lakh sq ft of built up space and has stocked more than 7,500 items. IKEA so far employed 950 people directly and another 1,500 indirectly at its store. It has plans to hire 15,000 in the coming years.
The launch of Hyderabad store:
IKEA store was formally opened to public in the presence of KT Rama Rao, Telangana Industries and IT Minister, along with Sweden Ambassador Klas Molin , Jesper Brodin, CEO, IKEA Group and Peter Betzel, CEO, IKEA India.
As Hyderabadiis rushed to store in thousands on day one, entire stretch of the road was jammed with heavy traffic throughout the day. The crowds resembled queue lines in Tirumala or queue lines at ticket counters of first day of a super-star movie. People of Hyderabad are always encouraging/ rushing for such new things. Similar crowds were seen when Metro train was opening, when starbucks was opening , even when Chennai shopping mall was opening. People turning up in huge crowds when such new stores or new services are coming up in Hyderabad shows the growing business potential of Hyderabad.
Future of IKEA in India
It has already acquired land at Navi Mumbai, Gurugram and Bengaluru and has begun work on the Mumbai property, which is expected to be ready by summer of 2019. The retailer is considering setting up some smaller format stores in India not only in metros but other select cities in the country. So far, IKEA group, had taken approval to set up 25 stores in India with an outlay of Rs 10,500 crores, and so far invested about Rs 4,500 crores.
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