Ikea to start its first store in 2017

“In terms of store build-up, we expect groundbreaking in February-March 2016. And store opening by autumn 2017. We have a very supportive and progressive government in Telengana who are supporting us in the process,” Ikea India CEO Juvencio Maetzu told this newspaper.

Hyderabad is the first city where Ikea had bought land for setting up its first store. However, the Swedish furishing company is also “looking at sites in other cities in parallel and hopes to be able to start many more stores in Delhi and NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.”

According to Mr Maetzu, Ikea would like to build its relationship with people and understanding their requirements before setting up their store in a city.

“We take our time to do things because it’s more important for us to do things right than fast.... We want to be successful not in year one but in next 100 years,” he said.

In May 2015, the company had organised a suppliers meet in Hyderabad to understand the products that manufacturers in Telangana can supply Ikea’s global stores and is in advanced talks with some of them.

“We are now connected with few of them (suppliers in Telangana). I will not be able to share the names with you right now as we are about to sign the contract.... (Apart from textiles), we want to develop [suppliers in categories such as] mattresses, wood, carpet etc,” the Ikea CEO explained.

The company appears to have found one of the big supplier in the state and an announcement is expected in some weeks.

Explaining further, Mr Maetzu said, “The sourcing is very important for us, we are production oriented retail company, we always go with full business model to secure best price. You have high import price, high custom duty that’s why locals sourcing is key ingredient for us to work with.”