IKEA flagship store to open in Bengaluru next month

Swedish furniture and homeware giant IKEA will open its flagship store in Bengaluru in June this year, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum summit at Davos on Wednesday.

Bommai made the announcement after meeting Ingka Group (IKEA) Global CEO Jesper Brodin.

“I am pleased to announce that IKEA will be opening their flagship store in Nagasandra in June 2022,” Bommai said in a tweet. “We are also in talks with the organisation to encourage local manufacturing, thus boosting employment and economic growth,” he said.

According to a statement from the chief minister’s office, Brodin invited Bommai to inaugurate the flagship store.

The Nagasandra store will be IKEA’s third in India. It has stores in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The Bengaluru store, spread over five lakh sqft, will employ 800-1000 direct workers and another 1,500 indirectly providing services such as assembly and delivery, the company had said earlier. The IKEA Bengaluru store is expected to attract more than 70 lakh visitors per year.

The company had said that Karnataka was a “priority market” and IKEA India would invest over Rs 2,000 crore in the long term and nearly Rs 1,000 crore in the Bengaluru store. 

During the day, Bommai met Axis Bank managing director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry. 

Bommai also hosted a breakfast for heads of various companies and expat Indian entrepreneurs. This included America’s Indiaspora founder MR Rangaswami, Singapore-based Indorama Corporation founder Sri Prakash Lohia, Hitachi managing director Bharat Kaushal, UAE-based VPS Healthcare chairperson Dr Shamsheer Vayalil and others.