IKEA to open new store in Navi Mumbai this summer

The world's largest furniture retailer IKEA will open its first store in Navi Mumbai this year in summer, IKEA India MD Peter Betzel said on Thursday. The furniture giant was lining up at least one smaller store in Mumbai as it seeks to tap the potential of India's financial capital. The second IKEA store in Mumbai is expected to roll out by the end of 2020, according to Betzel.

According to a report by Business Standard, smaller stores targeted towards central business districts and residential areas in Mumbai are in the pipeline by the retailer. These stores are expected to come up in South and Western Mumbai as well as the central suburbs of the city. Navi Mumbai store will reportedly come up in Turbhe. 

Betzel told the daily that Mumbai would be the first Indian market to have the retailler's 'hybrid' model coupled with offline large and small format stores and the e-store, launched in August 2019. He had also said that the city where they would like to be truly multi-channel would be Mumbai.

Betzel said that the company would not increase product prices for now as they want to be affordable and does not plan to increase product prices following the government's move to increase import duties on goods like kitchenware and furniture. About 75 per cent of the goods that Ikea sells in India are imported from multiple sources.

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