Ingka Group, the parent company of Swedish home furniture giant Ikea, on Friday announced the acquisition of a 48,000-square-metre land parcel in Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi, for developing an Ikea store anchored retail shopping mall under its Ingka Centres business concept called Meeting Place. While it is the first of its kind in India, it adds to the 45 existing Meeting Places around the globe. The total volume of investment into the project would be close to Rs 5,500 crore (above €600 million).
This acquisition comes close on the heels of the company launching its second Ikea India store in Mumbai in December last year. The company already operates one Ikea store in Hyderabad.
“The development is expected to create more job opportunities and support infrastructure development and growth of the organised retail and home furnishings sector in the region”, the company said in a statement, adding that Meeting Places, which are always anchored around an Ikea store, are very different to the typical mall providing a sustainable mixed-use destination that brings ‘many people’ together for multiple reasons and are basically designed to meet the needs of local communities, bringing value for customers, communities, and partners.
“India is an exciting and dynamic market, and today’s acquisition is a key milestone in our strategic vision to transform the business in response to the changing retail environment. Millions of people live within easy reach of Noida and we want to build emotional connections with them, by bringing as much value as we possibly can to their lives and communities,” Cindy Andersen, Ingka Centres managing director said, adding that the concept is built around local communities’ needs, which goes far beyond shopping.
“We are happy to announce the first Ikea store in Noida together with Ingka Centres. The Delhi-NCR region is one of our most important markets in India. This is in line with Ikea’s ambition to meet 100 million people in India in the coming years,” said Peter Betzel, CEO and CSO, Ikea India.
In a ceremony held by the state to hand over the land, chief minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed the group and assured all required support to get the project started soon.
