Ikea India to increase local sourcing for lower prices, employment opportunities

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Apr 29, 2022

Homeware, home textiles, and furniture giant Ikea plans to increase the amount of products it sources from India for its stores in the country to keep consumer costs down and create employment opportunities. 

“We have been steadily increasing our local sourcing footprint in India and our ambition is to reach about 50% in the long term,” Ikea India’s CEO and chief sustainability officer Susanne Pulverer told the Press Trust of India at the recent Retail Leadership Summit. “So our ambition is to increase the local sourcing step by step.”
 
Increasing local sourcing will reduce Ikea’s environmental impact in India, according to Pulverer. Not only will this move create job opportunities, it will also enable workers to enhance their skills, she said. 

Another factor in the brand’s push for local sourcing is the rising logistics costs caused by petrol price increases as well as high raw materials costs due to current geopolitical tensions.

“We are also impacted like everyone else by raw material availability, higher prices, more transport cost,” said Pulverer. “So we have tried to absorb a lot of the cost, we have done some price adjustments as well. And we try to stay affordable in every segment.”
 
Along with local sourcing, Ikea will roll out several other initiatives in India to become more eco-friendly. By 2025, the brand plans to have achieved a complete conversion to electric vehicles for goods delivery in the country.