Building a brand over time in the marketplace: CEO of IKEA in India Susanne Pulverer
On July 28, IKEA India will open its fifth location in Mumbai. Susanne Pulverer, the company's chief executive officer and chief sustainability officer in the nation, spoke about the company's "conservative" and "different" shop opening approach in India as well as the rebound in offline sales following the epidemic on the sidelines of the event.
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IKEA has been careful while entering the Indian market thus far, but CEO and CSO Susanne Pulverer claims that the firm has learned from the country even if it is way behind schedule in opening 25 shops there by 2025.
"When we opened our first store, the plans were mainly conceptual. At the company's fifth store opening in India, in Mumbai's R City Mall, she remarked, "We are now functioning in the three marketplaces in the country and have learnt the process better.
Naturally, we must be considerably more adaptable, agile, and flexible for the upcoming step. That being said, it is much better to hold off on making too many promises for the future. But we are making steady progress toward our long-term goal of staying in India, she continued.
After Worli, IKEA India will open its second city store in Mumbai on July 28. In Navi Mumbai, the business opened a large scale store in 2020. IKEA is well renowned for its expansive stores, which range in size from 300,000 to 400,000 square feet and are typically found on the outskirts of cities.
However, the corporation has modified its approach for the nation and is introducing smaller stores, sometimes known as city stores, in India that range in size from 80,000 to 100,000 square feet. The business opened its first "city store" in Worli, Mumbai, in December of last year. Last month, the business opened a large scale store in Bengaluru.
According to Pulverer, the company will open its flagship large format stores in new cities first, followed by smaller local stores.
Across addition, IKEA India opened online stores in the nation in three locations in Gujarat, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad. During the epidemic, the company saw a spike in online channel sales, but that has since declined. During the Covid-19 pandemic, online sales made up 38 percent of the company's total sales, but they currently make about 30 percent.
The CEO noted that although "the share of online sales has inched down," it is partly because "we are observing a robust sales trend offline."
Pulverer claims that the business has achieved post-pandemic sales in Hyderabad.
According to business intelligence platform Tofler, the pandemic had an influence on IKEA India's operations, which resulted in a net loss of around Rs 807 crore in India in FY21 as opposed to Rs 721 crore in FY20. Sales for the company during that time were Rs 608 crore, up from Rs 566 crore in FY20.
