IKEA opening store in Navi Mumbai by January 2019

Global home furnishings retailer IKEA has decided to open its second store in India in Navi Mumbai in January 2019 with an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore. The store is expected to employ 700 direct co-workers. The Swedish headquartered retailer plans to open 25 stores across the country by 2025. Its first store is coming up in Hyderabad in early 2018.

The Navi Mumbai store will also employ around 1,500 workers for providing services including assembly and delivery, according to an agency report. The store’s ground-breaking ceremony was held at Turbhe in Navi which was attended by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

“The store is the result of the MoU signed earlier by IKEA and Government of Maharashtra as a major step towards establishing retail stores in the state. We will extend full cooperation to enable ease of doing business in the state,” the chief minister was quoted as saying in the report.

“IKEA furniture is devised for intelligent space management. There is a huge market for it here as Maharashtra has a target for affordable housing. We are going to build two million affordable houses,” he said.

IKEA had earlier stated that Maharashtra would be a key market where it would open up five-six stores with a distribution centre in Pune.

“We will make a positive footprint by creating employment, investing in skill development, growing local sourcing to meet demands in India and globally,” IKEA India’s chief executive officer Juvencio Maeztu said, according to the report.