Is there a cinema hall here? It’s a question the staff at the IKEA showroom in Hyderabad hears often, since the Swedish furniture retail giant launched its operations in India this August. It’s entirely plausible to mistake the store for a mall because there’s 400,000 square feet of shopping to get by—not all in a day though, as the folks at the world’s largest furniture retailer will warn you. A sofa set? They’ve got them stacked up floor to rafter. Home layouts—just follow the arrows, room after room. Or a cutlery set? You don’t have to buy the knife that Indian homes rarely use. Yes, there is no cinema. But the show’s on.
A million visitors have turned up so far at the showroom, says IKEA which is in a hurry to get to other cities—its India debut has been years in the making—with investments of roughly Rs 1,000 crore each on a big store. With 423 stores worldwide and sales of euro 38 billion annually, IKEA has committed about Rs 12,800 crore in India. “We are looking at long-term investments...
