eNarada, Bengaluru, Thursday, October 11, 2018
The ground-breaking work for the Swedish giant IKEA saw some interesting moments.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr. G Parameshwara who had personally visited the spot to do the ritualistic practice had only one question to ask-“When will IKEA be open to the public? The staff were puzzled and were hard to give a concrete date. However, Parameshwara was persistent and kept on giving options-one month, six months, one year?
“I request the IKEA to complete the groundwork as soon as possible so that we have brand IKEA in Bengaluru”, said the Deputy CM.
Later speaking to media, Peter Betzel, CEO, IKEA India, said in a lighter vein, “We are opening IKEA Bengaluru on Thursday and that too at 10 am but please don’t ask me the date.”
IKEA officials said that their inauguration date in Hyderabad was deferred many times as IKEA wants to ensure that everything was in place before they opened to the public. They didn’t want to hurry up the process as IKEA was known to do things systematically and foolproof.
The 500,000-sq. feet store planned to open in summer 2020 is connected to the Nagasandra Metro Station. IKEA store is expected to attract more than 7 million visitors per year. The store will offer a wide range of beautiful and affordable home furnishing solutions.
The IKEA store will have around 2,000 parking space and a 1,000-seater restaurant serving Swedish and Indian delicacies (till now, only Hyderabad has a 1,000-seater cafe which is a record for IKEA as their second largest cafe is in Seoul, South Korea which can accommodate 750 people). It will also house a supervised children’s play area called “Småland”.
Around 7,500 products will be on offer with a solution to create a better and brighter everyday life at home.
Peter Betzel, the CEO, IKEA India, said, “Bengaluru is a very special city for us as we have active participation from our total value chain- IKEA Foundation, IKEA suppliers, IKEA social entrepreneurs and now IKEA retail.”
Dr. G. Parameshwara said, “We see IKEA as a strong partner in increasing local manufacturing in the state and bring best practices in retail and supply chain. We also see IKEA as a great contributor to the state’s sustainability efforts. IKEA will create many jobs and its commitment to employ 50 pc women will enable many more women in the state to join the workforce. We will extend full support to facilitate ease of doing business here and to be able to open the store very quickly to IKEA.”
