Hyderabad sources reported that a company spokesperson said on Friday that about 40,000 people visited IKEA's first India store on the opening day in Hyderabad. Accordingly the world's leading Swedish home furnishings retailer received a huge response from customers on Thursday. Meanwhile the spokesperson, however, declined to share the numbers relating to the business transacted on the first day, stating that the response was in line with the expectations.
Furthermore the store manager John Achillea had stated that they were expecting 40,000 to 45,000 people. Moreover with a huge crowd thronging the store in the evening, the IKEA staff found it a bit challenging to regulate the entry and further there were also few tense moments when some people broke queue to force their entry.
Further keeping in mind safety regulations and
compliance of norms, the store only accommodated 9,000 people at a time, which
resulted in long waiting lines. As per report IKEA had a capacity for more
1,200 cars. Accordingly the first India store of IKEA was opened with an
investment of Rs 1,000 crore, five years after the world's largest single brand
retailer received government approval in 2013 to invest Rs 10,500 crore to open
25 stores in India by 2025. Furthermore IKEA's next store will open in Navi
Mumbai in next summer, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi and in the next phase,
IKEA would cover Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata.
