IKEA postpones opening of its first store in Hyderabad to August 9

Swedish Home furnishing major IKEA retail India on Friday announced that the opening date of the first Indian store in Hyderabad will be moved from July 19 to August 9, 2018. In a statement issued yesterday, the company said: "IKEA India decided to move the date as it needs some more time to live up to its expected quality commitments towards customers and co-workers."

IKEA Retail India CEO Peter Betzel said: "Our main priority is to create an inspiring and safe experience for both customers and co-workers. Opening the first Indian IKEA store in Hyderabad means a lot to IKEA and we want to offer the best possible meeting with IKEA for the many Indian customers."

The Hyderabad store has come up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. This would provide 1,000 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs at the store, and 50 per cent of the employees would be women.

Almost five years back, the Swedish furniture giant got a go-ahead from the government for its Rs 10,500 crore investment plan for setting up stores in India. IKEA plans to open 25 stores by 2025 in nine Indian cities.

Earlier in April, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government to set up its stores in the state with an expected investment of up to Rs 3,000 crore in the long term. IKEA has also signed MoUs with Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to open its retail stores.

IKEA India Country Property and Expansion Manager David McCausland recently said that IKEA will soon set up its retail stores and other touch points in Gujarat to bring good quality and affordable home furnishings for the many people in Gujarat.

Last year in December, the company said that it will have 15,000 co-workers in India by 2025. "IKEA currently has close to 400 co-workers in India and plans to have 15,000 co-workers by 2025, of which 50 per cent will be women. The company is hiring 500-700 co-workers for each of its four stores that will open in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi/NCR cities," IKEA had said.