IGKA Group, the holding company of IKEA, is accelerating its transformation, stepping up investments in new and existing stores and fulfilment centres, developing city centre formats and focusing on its e-commerce platform.

As part of this strategy, IKEA India is on track to invest €1.5 billion and aims to be present in several cities in the coming years, increasing its employee count to over 15,000 from the current 1,500. On the other hand, the company will cut 7,500 jobs globally as it transforms its retail direction.

Mumbai will be the first Indian metro to offer the full range of IKEA services including city centre formats, large stores and a strong digital offering, by next year. IKEA intends to reach 200 million Indians in the next three years through different channels.

Three Indian cities — Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi — are included in IKEA’s top-30 mega cities strategy.

Besides jobs in stores and new city centres, the company will also create new roles in areas such as digital, data analytics, diversified fulfilment networks and personalisation. Fifty per cent of employees will be women.

Peter Betzel, Chief Executive Officer, IKEA India, said: “IKEA India will hire more people, both in terms of direct and indirect employment. And as we start our digitisation journey, we will add more workers with different skill-sets, while also creating avenues for our existing workers to grow in new roles.”

INGKA Group — one of the 11 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA sales channels under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems — , is accelerating its transformation plan. It plans to step up investments in new and existing IKEA stores and fulfilment centres, develop city centre formats and focus on IKEA’s e-commerce platform.

IKEA said the changes will lead to the creation of about 11,500 new jobs globally in the next two years, with the opening of 30 new IKEA touchpoints, and investments in its fulfilment network and digital capabilities. At the same time, 7,500 jobs — under global functions and offices in 30 markets— may become redundant globally, out of the current 1,60,000 jobs.

Jesper Brodin, Chief Executive Officer, INGKA Group, said, “We continue to grow and perform strongly. We recognise that the retail landscape is transforming at a scale and pace we’ve never seen before. With customer behaviours changing rapidly, we are investing and developing our business to meet their needs in better ways.”

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