IKEA not happy with limited FIPB nod
27 Dec 2012
Sweden's IKEA, mainly known for its furniture and accessories, today said it wants the government to allow it to "retail its entire range of products", including opening of cafes in its stores in India, in the wake of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approving only Rs4,200 crore of investment out of the Rs10,500 crore that it has proposed.
"The IKEA Group must have the ability to retail its entire range of products in India, as is being done globally in every country where IKEA stores are located. This is as per the IKEA concept," a company spokeswoman said.
She said the IKEA Group has clarified to the Indian government the categories of products that it wishes to sell here based on its global concept and range.
"It is not the intention of the IKEA Group to seek a general or broad approval for a wide variety of products. We are true to our application that we submitted in June 2012 and we have not submitted a fresh proposal," the spokeswoman added.
In that application the company had proposed to invest Rs10,500 crore to set up 10 furnishing and homeware stores as well as allied infrastructure over 10 years in India.
Subsequently, it plans to open 15 more stores.
