IKEA, the Swedish home furnishing giant, is set to open up a retail space in a mall for the first time ever.
The company is in talks with realty developer Runwal Group to lease nearly one lakh square feet space spread over two floors at R City Mall in the Ghatkopar suburban area of Mumbai.
Even though IKEA is known for its expansive stores, Mumbai is home to the country’s most expensive realty market and IKEA is adopting a different strategy to expand to the city.
Prior to narrowing down the space for the physical store, IKEA had launched its online services for Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane, offering more than 7,500 products ranging from home furnishing solutions to electronics.
The launch of the store will be accompanied by the support of the online portal as well.
“IKEA is currently exploring opportunities to open its stores in different places to reach many people in India. We opened our first store in Hyderabad in August 2018. India is a prioritised market and we have ambitious expansion plans. Three Indian cities are in the fast-speed expansion markets which include Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi/National Capital Region. Land sites have been acquired in Bengaluru and Gurugram and we continue to look for suitable sites in other cities across India. No other land sites have been closed so far,” IKEA said in a statement.
The brand will be leasing out the property for a period of 5 years with the lease being open to extension by another 5 years. The definitive documents are likely to be executed subject to fulfillment of certain terms and conditions as agreed between the parties.
Source: https://in.apparelresources.com/