BackIkea’s designs on India
A display at the Make in India Week shows what's on offer from the world's largest furniture retailer
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When the world’s largest furniture retailer Ikea Group finally opens its first India store in the summer of 2017, it will be five years since it officially got permission to set up stores in the country.
Not surprisingly, there is much anticipation on what to expect from Ikea, a Swedish multinational company.
To satiate some of that curiosity, the company displayed, at the Make in India Week that concluded in Mumbai on Thursday, a model of its first store to come up in Hyderabad.
Built on a 13-acre plot, the store will be spread across 400,000 sq. ft and will be well connected by road and Metro, making it accessible to a large consumer base.
To be sure, every Ikea store looks similar at the macro level. The Swedish retailer is known for its large, neatly categorized and well-marked spaces where people can spend the better part of a day browsing and shopping for everything—from furniture and furnishings to home accessories like mats, rugs, photo frames, cutlery, glassware, lights, candles and lamps. They can also grab a bite at the in-store cafes.
However, at a micro level, each store is different. “The company spends a lot of time to understand the local neighbourhood, people’s lifestyles, habits and no two stores are identical," said Patrik Antoni, country communications manager at Ikea India Pvt. Ltd. He said the stores that will come up subsequently in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune will be different from each other and from the one in Hyderabad. By 2025, Ikea plans to have 25 stores in India.
In China, Ikea stores see up to eight million footfalls per annum. The company expects the Hyderabad store to attract four million people per annum from across the city, and nearby towns and cities.
Research done by Ikea shows that people usually visit the Swedish retailer, known for its do-it-yourself furniture, three-four times a year. However, the company, which has 380 stores in almost 50 countries, expects Indians to avail of its services more frequently.
So, it plans to offer a larger number of services.
Interestingly, the 63-year-old company has been sourcing from India for the last 30 years. India is known for its textiles as well as its rugs and carpets. It is one of the three countries that Ikea sources from.
Yet, if it were to open a store in India today, only 3% of its wares would be locally-made. To be relevant and affordable, the company wants to increase the percentage of made-in-India goods like furniture, mattresses, handicrafts and textiles to 30% by 2025.
Ikea is looking at manufacturing even larger items like sofas and mattresses here. Some of the mattresses manufactured in India—displayed at its stall during the Make in India Week—are now ready to be shipped to its global stores.
“There were mattress-making skills available here, but we were not able to compress them for achieving distribution efficiencies and scale. We have now worked with manufacturers to create a product that can be roll-packed as we got in the technology," said Antoni.
The company has also brought in innovation into the manufacture of handmade carpets with a new “punja" loom, a proud exhibit at its stall with a weaver working on it. It combines an element of automation, thus cutting down the requirement from two people to one for making a carpet. It has also increased efficiency by introducing a flexible moving seat.
Various partnerships have been planned to take India to the world. Last year, for instance, Ikea partnered with the National Institute of Fashion Technology to develop a special collection of bed linen that showcases the best of Indian patterns and textures. Displayed at the stall, the collection includes bedcovers, bedsheets, comforters, pillow covers along with bedside tables, homeware and accessories. These will be retailed globally.
As the $35 billion giant marks its retail footprint in India, many more such innovations are on the cards.
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