New Delhi: Swedish furniture major Ikea has said its India expansion plans have gained momentum as it posted a 7.1 per cent increase in global annual sales to EUR 34.2 billion.
The company, which follows September-August calender, said its expansion plans to open first stores in India and Serbia are on track. Commenting on the result, Ikea Group President and CEO Peter Agnell said: "Ikea Group had another good year and welcomed 783 million visits to our stores.
In all of our meetings with the customers, we want to provide good quality products and inspiration for creating beautiful homes". "India is contributing towards overall growth of Ikea in all dimensions, whether it is retail expansion, sourcing and our work with social entrepreneurs and Ikea Foundation.
Our India expansion plans have gathered pace with recent ground breaking ceremony of the first India store in Hyderabad, slated to open at the end of 2017," said Ikea India CEO Juvencio Maeztu.
He further added the Ikea has bought land in Mumbai and is searching for suitable locations in its prioritised places like Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telengana.
"Our focus now is to bring great home furnishings inspiration for the Indian consumers and double the sourcing by 2020, adding on a number of suppliers for different home categories including materials locally found in India like bamboo, jute etc," said Maeztu.
He further added that Ikea has recently appointed new suppliers in India. "We have recently started new suppliers in India and are very proud of our alliances with them. India will be good for Ikea," Maeztu added.
Ikea has been sourcing from India for the last 30 years for its global stores. Currently, it has 50 suppliers here. The company received government approval in 2013 for its Rs 10,500-crore proposal to open retail stores under 100 per cent FDI.
Globally, China is Ikea's one of the fastest growing markets, together with Australia, Canada and Poland, while Germany retained its position as the largest market, closely followed by the US.
