IKEA to make its foray into Bengaluru
BENGALURU: Swedish home furnishing company IKEA will start the construction of its Bengaluru store with the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday (October 11). This will be the global home care major’s third store in India. The company had opened its first store in India in Hyderabad in August and the second store is likely to be opened by the end of next year in Mumbai.
In 2017, IKEA had acquired 14-acres of land from the Bengaluru the Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) behind the Nagasandra Metro Station off Tumakuru Road. The company will invest about Rs 1,000 crore in the Bengaluru store, which includes the land acquisition cost.“After our Hyderabad store, we are focusing on the Mumbai one, which will be operational by 2019,” said Patrik Antoni, Deputy Country Manager, IKEA India.
The company expects to complete the construction and open the store by 2020. According to the company, the Bengaluru store will be a large format store, akin to the Hyderabad store, spread across 4,00,000 sqft with parking space for up to 2,000 vehicles. As part of plans to open the store and understand customer behaviour, the company officials had visited many houses across the state. The company is also planning to launch its e-commerce sales channel after the store opening.“Once the store is open and the e-commerce channel goes live we can serve people in Tamil Nadu and Kerala from our Bengaluru store after establishing strong supply system,” he added.