Hej Home precedes Ikea Hyderabad store

Swedish home-furnishing retailer Ikea has opened a Hej Home experience centre in Hyderabad, where it will launch its first store for India next year.

The centre will give visitors an idea of the type of products the store will offer when it opens next spring.

Ikea country marketing manager Ulf Smedberg says the global retailer had also acquired land in Bengaluru and Gurgaon to establish stores in the coming months.

Hyderabad’s store will cover 400,000sqft (37,160sqm) area in the city’s hi-tech area, and will display more than 7000 products, says manager John Achillea. “We’re still recruiting and also training young women to work in retail.”

Smedberg says the company has been sourcing materials from India for 30 years. “For the Hyderabad store, we have local entrepreneurs who will help us with assembling and servicing.”

He says Ikea. The company looked at more than 500 homes in India, and more than 100 in Hyderabad, over a range of demographics to decide on the final product line-up.