Swedish furniture behemoth IKEA is going aggressive on its retail roll-out with the company announcing that it will soon start work on its second store slated to come up in Maharashtra.

Company officials also said it would launch its first distribution centre in Pune, besides doubling sourcing from the current 318 million euros to 600 million euros.

“We will be undertaking the ground breaking ceremony next month. IKEA will focus on omni-channel retailing in markets like Mumbai. The Mumbai store will have an area of 4,30,000 sq ft and will entail an investment of Rs 700 crore,” Patrik Antoni, Deputy Country Manager, IKEA India told BusinessLine at the company’s headquarters here.

Last year, IKEA had acquired a 23-acre land parcel in Turbhe, Navi Mumbai, for its second store from the Tata-owned Rallis India for approximately Rs 214 crore.

IKEA is also in the process of scaling up its online business in many countries, including India. IKEA said it was also scouting for property in Mumbai to launch Hej Homes, which may also act as its omni-channel retail format.

For the Maharashtra market, the company plans to have various smaller store or consumer touchpoints. BusinessLine had reported that IKEA would be launching its pop-up store, Hej Homes, in cities where it plans to start retail operations.

The 4,000-7,000 sq ft Hej Homes (‘Hej’ is Swedish for ‘hello’) are typically housed in areas with high footfall such as malls. These would house a cafe and a play area for children, and mirror IKEA’s big box retail format in a smaller formats.

IKEA’s first fully operational store is slated to come up in Hyderabad later this year. Taking a cue from its Hyderabad store, the company is also undertaking a skill development programme in Mumbai to train talent ahead of the opening of the Mumbai store in the middle of 2018.

IKEA, which manufactures and sells home and office furnishing products, had announced plans to invest in single-brand retail trading in India through a 100 per cent subsidiary. In 2013. The company had got the nod from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to invest Rs 10,500 crore over 10 years for setting up stores in India.

(The correspondent was in Sweden at the invitation of IKEA.)

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