IKEA India to hire 7,000 people, looks to expand India presence

Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA is finally getting bullish about the India market with back-to-back store openings over the next couple of years. The retailer, that is today unveiling its fourth store in Bengaluru, is planning to launch at least 3-4 large format stores in quick succession, top executives at its India unit told Business Today.

After opening its first store at Hyderabad in 2018, IKEA launched its second store at Navi Mumbai in 2020 and another smaller city store at Mumbai in 2021. With the launch of its large format store at Bengaluru today, IKEA now has four outlets in the country.

According to the company, it is now the largest store in India spread over 460,000 sq.ft. To manage the store, IKEA has hired nearly 1,000 people, with 70 per cent of them locally, said Parineeta Cecil Lakra, Country People & Culture Manager at IKEA India.

"Currently, we have some 3,000 people working for IKEA and we plan to take that number up to 10,000", she said without specifying a time line.

According to Erik Jan Middelhoven, Home Furnishing and Design Manager, IKEA India, after the launch of the Bengaluru store, IKEA plans to open two other stores -- one each at Mumbai and Bengaluru. Then it will turn to the Delhi-NCR region. 

"The concerned teams are already working on the NCR project and finalising the location is being worked out", he told BT.