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Swedish multinational furniture company IKEA announced its plans to open its new store in Mumbai by the end of the year. After Hyderabad, Mumbai will be the second city in India to have an Ikea store.
An Ikea official said the company will also hold a ground-breaking ceremony on October 11 in Bengaluru. Ikea wishes to have over 25 stores across cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata with both online and offline approaches, by 2025.
Patrik Antony, Deputy Country Manager (Management) IKEA India, said, “Ikea will be investing nearly Rs. 3,000 crores in the next three years to open three packing warehouses in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. The company would open the centres as an Omni-channelling brand with large IKEA stores, city centre stores and online presence,” to PTI.
Speaking about the recent hike in import duties on non-essential goods, Patrik Antoni told PTI, “For now, we have not seen any repercussions, but if there is continuation of costs due to hike in customs duties on furniture and furnishing items, then at some point of time we would have to pass it (burden) on to customers, but we may do it on higher-end products, not lower-end.”
He also added that Ikea is a multinational company and it would appreciate global trade, but would not be happy with trade barriers such as customs tariff or import duties. He also said trade barriers will only affect ‘ease of doing business,’ which will, in the long run, affect customers.
