IKEA opens country’s first store in Hyderabad

Customers queued up ahead of the opening by KTR

August 10, 2018 12:56 am | Updated 12:56 am IST - HYDERABAD

New beginning:   Minister for IT K.T. Rama Rao, IKEA MD (TS) John Achillea (left), group CEO Jesper Brodin, Ambassador of Sweden Klas Molin at the inaugural of the new IKEA store in Hyderabad on Thursday.

New beginning: Minister for IT K.T. Rama Rao, IKEA MD (TS) John Achillea (left), group CEO Jesper Brodin, Ambassador of Sweden Klas Molin at the inaugural of the new IKEA store in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Five years after the Centre gave it a go-ahead to invest, Swedish home furnishings major IKEA sounded the bugle of its retail foray in the country by opening the first store in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Well ahead of the formal opening of the 400,000-sq. ft. facility, developed on 13 acres, several customers were waiting in the queue lines in front of the entry gate.

It was worth the wait, as they were ushered into the swanky, bright and colourful store hosting over 7,500 products to sounds of military band and the employees lustily cheering them. The workforce, a good mix of men and women, welcomed them with smiles, sounds and by waving the flags of India and Sweden.

Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao, the IKEA leadership team led by Group CEO Jesper Brodin and the first customer Rajani Venugopal cut the ribbon thus formally throwing open the doors of the first store, on which the company had invested ₹1,000 crore.

Earlier, accompanied by the senior executives, the Minister went round the facility, quickly acceding to several young men and women employees’ request for selfies as well as chatting with a few.

A pleasantly surprised Ms. Venugopal, a business woman, said: “I had no idea I would be the first one. I was expecting a crowd of people who live nearby... thought they would be queueing up as IKEA is a big brand and would be excited about the opening. So I came pretty early.”

The IKEA, she said, was her favourite brand from a home furnishing and kitchen products perspective, something to which she got familiar during her stay in Singapore. Quality of the products and their pricing is bound to endear them to the customers, she added.

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