MUMBAI : Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea is accelerating its expansion in India, as it looks to add 3-4 small city stores over the next 10 months, in a change of focus from large-format outlets to compact urban showrooms. “We’re opening a second city store in Delhi after already opening a small store—other cities will come. We will open a minimum of three new touch points till August and hopefully many more next year. There is a shift underway—we’ve done six stores in seven years; we’re going to do three this year. We need to recruit a lot of leaders, we are going to go from 3,000 people today to maybe three times that or four times of that in a couple of years,” Patrik Antoni, chief executive officer (CEO), Ikea India, said in an interview with Mint. Antoni was appointed India CEO in August this year.Omni-channel strategyIkea is present in five markets in India with three large-format stores – one each in Hyderabad, Navi Mumbai, and Bengaluru, as well as two small-format or city stores. It shut one in Mumbai last year. It offers online deliveries across various pin codes in Maharashtra (including Pune), Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, among other markets. The Ingka Group, which operates Ikea stores and shopping centres globally, has also announced plans to open Ikea-anchored large shopping malls in India, with two such projects currently under construction in Noida and Gurugram. The company first announced its entry into India’s retail market in 2013 after winning approval to open stores under India’s foreign direct investment rules.Also Read | Short-form videos overtake TV viewing in India, says Meta report It then opened its maiden store in Hyderabad in 2018, a typical large-format yellow and blue store spanning a sprawling 13-acre complex. However, India’s retail market has since evolved, with more shoppers moving online and access to large land parcels in city centres becoming a significant challenge. “We see that the omni-channel concepts work the best. That means we still have the large stores because that’s how you best experience the Ikea concept. The mix is that, for my everyday needs, I go online or to the city center store (small) and when I want a little bit more I go to the big stores,” he said. The expansion will be supported by more investments in distribution centres, speedy deliveries, and an Ikea product development centre in India to develop new products for India and overseas. Antoni said the group could announce a new set of investments in India soon.Market outlook“We will announce new numbers this year because we already exhausted the first ₹10,500 crore. There will be a new chunk now being announced which is more than that,” he added. Antoni said the India market has a “solid” mandate from Ingka Group. “They are now saying that India is a growth market for us—which was a bit of in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. 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Ikea India plans to launch 3-4 smaller city stores, changing its strategy from larger retail locations.
