IKEA buys land in Hyderabad for first India store
13 Jul 2015
Swedish Home furnishings company IKEA on Friday announced that it has purchased land in Hyderabad, moving a step closer to opening its first store in India.
The company has bought a 13-acre plot close to HITEC City, the IT hub, which is within easy access to public transport and next to an upcoming metro line, the company said in a statement.
IKEA said it has signed a land purchase agreement with the Telangana government, but did not reveal the size of deal and other details of the agreement.
The company said it is planning to set up stores in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR and is on the lookout for suitable sites. IKEA plans to open 25 stores in India in the long term.
IKEA had last year signed an MoU with the Telangana government for opening the store. The company had then announced plans to have retail outlets of a standard design, with investments of $100 million (Rs 500-600 crore) at each location.
Sweden-based IKEA is one of the world's largest furniture, household goods and textiles retail company. It has been sourcing from India for the last 28 years and it plans to double its sourcing volumes in the country by 2020.
Around 45,000 people work directly for 50 IKEA suppliers in India and about 4,00,000 in the extended supply chain.
IKEA recently organised three `Make More in India' campaigns, including one in Telangana, to look for new suppliers, said the statement on Friday.
There are currently 315 IKEA Group stores in 27 countries. IKEA employs 150,000 co-workers and in 2014 alone it had 716 million visitors to its stores, with a €28.7-billion sales turnover.
