Swedish Furniture Giant IKEA Postpones Hyderabad Store Opening

Swedish furniture manufacturer IKEA has postponed the dates of opening its first store in Hyderabad by almost a month to August 9 saying it needs some more time to fulfill quality commitments.

The company was scheduled to open its first store in India next week on July 19.

"IKEA Retail India decided to move the date as it needs some more time to live up to its expected quality commitments towards customers and coworkers," said IKEA Retail India CEO Peter Betzel in a statement. According to the company, its main priority is to create an inspiring and safe experience for both customers and coworkers.

"Opening the first Indian IKEA store in Hyderabad means a lot to IKEA and we want to offer the best possible meeting with IKEA for the many Indian customers," said IKEA Retail India CEO Peter Betzel.

IKEA's Hyderabad store has come up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. This would provide 1,000 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs at the store, and 50 per cent of the employees would be women.

IKEA plans to open 25 stores by 2025 across nine Indian cities.

Earlier in April, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government to set up its stores in the state with an expected investment of up to Rs 3,000 crore in the long term. IKEA has also signed MoUs with Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to open its retail stores.

IKEA India Country Property and Expansion Manager David McCausland recently said that IKEA will soon set up its retail stores and other touch points in Gujarat to bring good quality and affordable home furnishings for the people of Gujarat.

Last year in December, the company said that it will have 15,000 co-workers in India by 2025.

IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad. IKEA operates 355 stores in 29 countries with nearly 70% of the stores located in Europe. IKEA received 817 million store visits in 2017 and 2.1 billion visitors on its various websites in 2016.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 14, 2018 10:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).