Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has informed the legislature assembly that the Maharashtra Govt. has signed a pact with Ikea regarding opening their exclusive outlets in the state. As per the statement issued, Ikea will open 2-3 outlets, with an investment of Rs 600 crore in the state.
It is expected that overall upto 3000 jobs would be created after Ikea starts operating in Maharashtra.
Retail experts have shared that Mumbai, Pune and Nashik are the hot contenders for Ikea outlets.
72 year old Ikea is world’s biggest furniture retailer having founded in Sweden and headquartered at Leiden, Netherlands. As of 2013, they had 139,000 employees worldwide across 351 stores in 46 countries. With 28 billion euros of revenue in 2013, Ikea uses approximately 1% of Earth’s wood.
Their biggest USPs have been their impeccable range of furniture products, available under one roof, and their customization options which few other furniture providers offer.
Ikea’s Indian Journey
Ikea had been sourcing products from India for their stores in USA and Europe since last three decades and helping the social entrepreneurship movement along with assisting social causes.
Last year, they launched MÃ…NGSIDIG, a limited collection of handmade textiles developed with social entrepreneurs in India. They helped one of their primary textile supplier from India: Asian Fabrics to become 100% energy independent by installing wind turbine at their manufacturing locations.
In 2009, Ikea donated $48 million to UNICEF for fighting child labor in India.
They always had intentions and plans of opening their stores in India, but due to the strict FDI rules, they always backed off.
However, things changed in 2012, when Indian Govt. made a major decision to allow 100% FDI in single brand retail. This opened up a whole new avenue for major international brands such as Ikea among others to open up their stores in India.
The same year, Ikea came out open with their plans for India, and announced that they will be investing Rs 10,000+ crore in the country and open up 25 stores in the next 5 years.
Last year, they announced that Hyderabad would be the location of their first ever store in India. As per reports, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government and informed that they will be investing close to Rs 600 crore for their Hyderabad outlet.
Typically, an Ikea store takes upto 3 years to get started, and as per this estimate, it maybe around 2016 that their Hyderabad outlet gets opened.
Startups in the furniture space in India, such as UrbanLadder (where Ratan Tata recently invested), PepperFry, FabFurnish among others would be closely observing this development.
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[…] Fadnavis has informed the legislature assembly that the Maharashtra Govt. has signed a pact with Ikea regarding opening their exclusive outlets in the state. As per the statement issued, Ikea will open 2-3 outlets, with an investment of Rs 600 crore in the […]