We don’t know yet if the iconic furniture retailer IKEA would
open its first Indian store at Noida, Greater Noida to be precise. But the good
news is that the Swedish home furnishings company has inked a deal with the UP
Government to open three stores in the state – Noida, Lucknow and Agra. The MoU
was signed between CEO of IKEA India Juvencio Maeztu and Principal Secretary,
Infrastructure and Industrial Development, Mahesh Kumar Gupta, in the presence
of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The IKEA delegation informed the CM that an
investment of Rs 500 crore was estimated in every store. The IKEA Group is the
first major single brand retailer to be given FDI approval to set up retail
operations in India. IKEA Group has been present in India for 28 years working
with 48 suppliers, engaging 45,000+ direct co-workers and approximately 400,000
coworkers in its extended supply chain sourcing products for IKEA stores
worldwide. It’s a priority for IKEA to find the right locations at the right
price with Metro connection and easy access to public transport. A typical IKEA
store size is about 350,000 sqft, built on a plot size of 8-11 acres (about 4
football fields) and offers approximately 9,000 products. Each store employs
400 – 700 coworkers directly and 2,000 indirectly. India is the only country to
have IKEA retail, sourcing, IKEA foundation and Next Generation as its four
strong pillars. If you’re wondering what Next Generation is all about, it is:
IKEA collaborates with artisans in small-scale producer groups and through
these partnerships, it creates limited edition, hand-made collections that have
been created with a social mission yet still affordable. Currently two
initiatives of Next Generation are ongoing in India, with Rangsutra, Swaayam
Kala and Industree Producer Transform. The limited edition collections of
handmade products are sold in selected stores in Austria, Switzerland and
Sweden.
Founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943 (formed from his initials –
IK - plus the first letters of Elmtaryd (E) and Agunnaryd (A), the farm and
village where he grew up), IKEA originally sold sells pens, wallets, picture
frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings. Furniture was
introduced into the IKEA range in 1948 and the rest is history!
